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KEY TO KANSAS TOURS
KANSAS
A Guide to the Sunflower State
KANSA
A GUIDE TO THE SUNFLOWER STATE
*
Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers Project
of the Work Projects Administration
for the State of Kansas
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
ILLUSTRATED
Sponsored by State Department of Education
THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK
MCMXXXIX
FIRST PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER 1939
COPYRIGHT 1939 BY THE STATE OF KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
PRINTED IN U.S.A. BY AMERICAN BOOK-STRATFORD PRESS
All rights are reserved, including the rights to reproduce this book
or parts thereof in any form.
Preface
ALTHOUGH men and women have been writing books about Kansas for
almost a century, this is the State s first guide book. To residents of other
States it will open new vistas. And the Kansan who wants to know more
about his own State its history, its industrial background, its vast agricul
tural and mineral resources, its numerous points of historical interest and
scenic beauty, as well as its many recreation spots will find that this vol
ume is comprehensive and informative.
The Federal Writers Project was designed to give employment to needy
writers and research workers in compiling information directly from the
field and from research through various sources. The Kansas guide is, to
date, the State s major contribution to the project s American Guide Series,
which will include a guide to each of the forty-eight States, Puerto Rico,
and Alaska, as well as numerous city and regional guides.
Many Kansans have had a part in making this book. Consultants have
rendered valuable voluntary assistance in providing factual material and
verifying information obtained from other sources. Federal, State, and lo
cal governmental agencies have given appreciated help. Thanks are espe
cially due to Mr. Kirke Mechem, secretary of the State Historical Society ;
and his assistants, Mr. George A. Root and Mr. Nyle Miller, for the use
of the Society s library, archives, and newspapers and photograph files. The
gratitude of the Kansas Writers Project also is extended to Professor Ken
neth K. Landes, assistant State geologist; Professor James Malin, of the
State University; J. C. Mohler, State secretary of agriculture; Professor
Paul Weigel, Professor John Helm, Jr., and Professor Charles E. Rogers
of Kansas State College.
HAROLD C. EVANS, Chief Editor
Federal Works Agency
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
F. C. HARRINGTON, Commissioner
FLORENCE KERR, Assistant Commissioner
HENRY G. ALSBERG, Director of the Federal Writers Project
Contents
PAGE
PREFACE V
GENERAL INFORMATION XV
CALENDAR OF EVENTS XXviii
/. The State and Its People
CONTEMPORARY SCENE By William Allen White 1
NATURAL SETTING AND CONSERVATION 4
ARCHEOLOGY 20
INDIANS 25
HISTORY 39
AGRICULTURE 65
TRANSPORTATION 77
INDUSTRY, COMMERCE AND LABOR 87
FOLKLORE 100
EDUCATION 105
RELIGION 112
SPORTS AND RECREATION 116
JOURNALISM AND JOURNALISTS 121
LITERATURE 129
ART 137
MUSIC AND THE THEATER 146
ARCHITECTURE 153
//. Cities and Towns
ARKANSAS CITY 161
ATCHISON 165
COFFEYVILLE 173
DODGE CITY 177
EMPORIA 185
FORT SCOTT 192
vii
CONTENTS
HUTCHINSON
KANSAS CITY
LAWRENCE
LEAVENWORTH
LINDSBORG
MANHATTAN
MEDICINE LODGE
NEWTON
OTTAWA
SALINA
TOPEKA
WICHITA
TOUR 1
TOUR 2.
TOUR 3.
TOUR 4.
TOUR 4A.
TOUR 4B.
///. Highways and Byways
(St. Joseph, Mo.)-Marysville-Belleville-St. Francis-
(Denver, Colo.) [us 36}
Section a. Missouri Line to Belleville
Section b. Belleville to Colorado Line
Section b. Manhattan to Colorado Line
(Kansas City, Mo.) -Baldwin City-Council Grove-
Great Bend-Garden City- (La Junta, Colo.)
[us 50, us 5oN]
Section a. Missouri Line to Junction with us 5oN
and us 508; us 50
Section b. Junction with us 50, us 508, and us 59
to Garden City
Section c. Garden City to Colorado Line
Junction us 5O~5oN and us 59-Emporia-Newton-
Hutchinson-Dodge City-Garden City, [us 508]
Dodge City-Sublette-Hugoton-Elkhart-Oklahoma
Line [STATE 45]
198
205
220
232
244
249
255
261
266
270
276
294
307
307
316
Manhattan-Clay Center-Stockton-Goodland-
(Colorado Springs, Colo.) [us 24] 325
(Kansas City, Mo.) -Kansas City-Topeka-
Manhattan-Salina-Hays- (Denver, Colo. )
[us 24-40, us 40]
Section a. Missouri Line to Manhattan
337
338
348
369
370
374
388
390
400
TOUR 5.
TOUR 6.
TOUR 7.
TOUR 8.
TOUR 9.
TOUR 10.
TOUR 11.
TOUR 12.
TOUR 12 A,
TOUR 12B.
TOUR 13.
CONTENTS
(Jefferson City, Mo.)-Fort Scott-Wichita-Pratt-
Liberal-( Hooker, Okla.) [us 54] 407
Section a. Missouri Line to Wichita 408
Section b. Wichita to Oklahoma Line 416
(Springfield, Mo. )-Pittsburg-Parsons Winfield-
Medicine Lodge-Ulysses- (Trinidad, Colo.)
[us 160] 423
Section a. Missouri Line to Wellington 423
Section b. Wellington to Junction with us 83-160 430
Section c. Junction with us 83 to Colorado Line 436
(Joplin, Mo.)-Baxter Springs-Coffeyville-Arkansas
City-South Haven [us 66 and us 166] 439
(Kearney, Nebr.) -Norton-Oakley-Scott City-Garden
City-Liberal- (Turpin, Okla.) [us 83] 445
(Columbus, Nebr. )-Concordia-Salina-Wichita-
Wellington-(Enid, Okla.) [us 81] 453
(Lincoln, Nebr. )-Marysville Junction City-Eldorado-
Arkansas City- (Oklahoma City, Okla.) [us 77] 464
(Omaha, Nebr.)-Sabetha-Topeka-Yates Center-
Independence- (Tulsa, Okla.) [us 75] 470
(St. Joseph, Mo.)-Atchison-Lawrencc-Iola-Parsons-
(Vinita, Okla.) [us 59] 479
(Falls City, Nebr.) -Hiawatha- Atchison-Leavenworth-
Victory Junction-Kansas City- (Kansas City, Mo.)
[US 73] 492
Junction with us 59-Osawatomie [Osawatomie Rd.] 496
(Kansas City, Mo.)-Fort Scott-Pittsburg-Columbus-
(Muskogee, Okla.) [us 69] 499
IV. Appendices
CHRONOLOGY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
511
523
531
<<<
Maps
STATE MAP back pocket
TOUR KEY MAP front end pages
TRANSPORTATION MAP reverse of State map
OLD TRAILS MAP OF KANSAS Pages 32 and 33
KANSAS CITY 212 and 213
TOPEKA 280 and 281
Illustrations
THE PRAIRIE facing page 1
Photograph by ]. W . Me Man i gal
TORNADO page 7
Painting by John Steuart Curry
MONUMENT ROCKS, NEAR GOVE 12
Photograph from Kansas Geological Survey
FIELD PLOWED BY DAMMING LISTER, A FLOOD CONTROL FEATURE 15
Photograph from Soil Conservation Service
"DUST BOWL" FARM AFTER THE STORMS, NEAR LIBERAL 17
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
CHEYENNE CHIEFS IN CAPTIVITY, FORT DODGE (1878) 29
Photograph from Dodge City Chamber of Commerce
POTTAWATOMIE AND KlCKAPOO HOLY MEN, RESERVATION NEAR
HORTON 37
Photograph by ]. W. McManigal
PORTRAIT OF JOHN BROWN 51
Photograph from State Historical Society
WILD BILL HICKOK, CITY MARSHAL OF ABILENE 55
"Photograph from State Historical Society
WHEAT 64
Photograph by ]. W. McManigal
A COOPERATIVE ELEVATOR IN SHAWNEE COUNTY 67
Photograph from Department of Agriculture
THRESHING 71
Photograph by /. W. McManigal
CATTLE FEEDING IN SHELTER OF COTTONWOOD WINDBREAK 74
Photograph from Soil Conservation Service
4-H FARMERS ARE VISITED BY THE COUNTY AGENT 75
Photograph from Department of Agriculture
COAL BARGE ON THE MISSOURI (c. 1888) 82
Photograph from State Historical Society
FREIGHT YARDS, KANSAS CITY 83
Photograph from "Life" Magazine
AIRPORT, WICHITA 85
Photograph from Works Progress Administration
XI
ILLUSTRATIONS
OIL WELLS NEAR WICHITA 89
Photograph from Wichita Chamber of Commerce
KANSAS BEEF 91
Photograph by Richard H. Stewart; reproduction by special
permission from the "National Geographic Magazine"
COAL MINER 95
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
THE CAMPUS, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, LAWRENCE 107
Photograph by W . T. Bo din
NORTH HIGH SCHOOL, WICHITA 109
Photograph by Richard H. Stewart; reproduction by special
permission from the "National Geographic Magazine"
JAYHAWKERS IN ACTION, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 117
Photograph from Lawrence Chamber of Commerce
INDIAN BOXING TEAM, HASKELL INSTITUTE, LAWRENCE 119
Photograph by W. T. Bodin
THE COUNTRY EDITOR WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE 122
Photograph by Bernard Hoffman. (Courtesy of "Life" Magazine)
MEMORIAL TO PIONEER WOMEN, TOPEKA 138
Photograph from Wolfe Studio
"JOHN BROWN," DETAIL FROM MURAL IN CAPITOL, TOPEKA 142
Painting by John Steuart Curry
MUNICIPAL ART MUSEUM, WICHITA 143
COWBOY BAND, DODGE CITY (1884) 148
Photograph from Dodge City Chamber of Commerce
A SOD RANCH HOUSE (1898) 154
Photograph from State Historical Society
HOME OF HENRY J. ALLEN, WICHITA 158
Photograph from Bulla Studios
FREE BRIDGE, ATCHISON 167
Photograph from Atchison Chamber of Commerce
CITY HALL, DODGE CITY 179
Photograph from Municipality
MEMORIAL IN BOOT HILL CEMETERY, DODGE CITY 181
SODEN S MILL, EMPORIA 189
Photograph by F. W. Cowan
IN A SALT MINE, HUTCHINSON 201
Photograph from Carey Salt Company
SALT PLANT, HUTCHINSON 203
Photograph from Morton Salt Company
WYANDOTTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, KANSAS CITY 206
Photograph by Don Ballon
ILLUSTRATIONS
IN THE STOCKYARDS, KANSAS CITY 209
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
GREEN HALL, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 223
Photograph from University of Kansas
COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF SCHOOL, FORT LEAVEN WORTH 233
FEDERAL PRISON, LEAVEN WORTH 243
Photograph from Department of Justice
ART MUSEUM, BETHANY COLLEGE, LINDSBORG 246
AIRVIEW, KANSAS STATE COLLEGE, MANHATTAN 253
Photograph by K. W. Given
CARRIE NATION 259
Photograph from State Historical Society
SANTA FE AVENUE, SALINA 271
Photograph by C. W. Marsh
THE CAPITOL, TOPEKA 287
Photograph from Wolfe Studio
EXECUTIVE MANSION, TOPEKA 289
Photograph from Wolfe Studio
LOG CABIN (1870), GAGE PARK, TOPEKA 293
TERMINAL ELEVATOR, WICHITA 297
Photograph from Barnes Aerial Surveys
AIRVIEW, RIVERSIDE PARK, WICHITA 301
Photograph by Edgar B. Smith
TWO-YEAR-OLD TIMBER BELT PLANTING 306
Photograph from United States Forest Service
APPLES FROM THE COOPERATIVE PACKING PLANT, TROY 309
Photograph by J. W . McManigal
LAMBS FATTENED FOR THE STATE FAIR 323
Photograph from Department of Agriculture
NEGRO FARMER 330
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
FARM WOMEN S LITERARY MEETING 332
Photograph from Department of Agriculture
IN A COUNTRY STORE 340
Photograph by /. W. McManigal
DUTCH WINDMILL, WAMEGO 347
TERRITORIAL CAPITOL, FORT RILEY 351
Photograph from U. S. Army Signal Corps
AT THE AUCTION, HORTON 357
Photograph by J. W. McManigal
ILLUSTRATIONS
WATER BOY 361
Photograph by ]. W. Me Man i gal
BUILDING TEMPORARY SILO OF SNOW FENCE AND TAR PAPER 375
Photograph by ]. W. Me Man i gal
HARVESTING WITH BINDER 395
Photograph from International Harvester Company
DUST STORM APPROACHING WESTERN KANSAS TOWN 401
Photograph from Soil Conservation Service
STONE FENCE POST ON TREELESS PLAIN 406
Photograph by Richard H. Stewart; reproduction by special
permission from the "National Geographic Magazine"
YATES CENTER 411
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
REFINERY, ELDORADO 415
CEMENT SILOS IN SORGHUM FIELD 421
Photograph from Soil Conservation Service
HELIUM PLANT, DEXTER 429
Photograph from Staley Studio
SAINT JACOB S WELL, CLARK COUNTY 435
Photograph from Kansas Geological Survey
UNION MEMBERS, GALENA 441
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
BUFFALO PRESERVE, SCOTT COUNTY STATE PARK 451
Photograph by K. W. Given
ALONG THE CHISHOLM TRAIL 459
Photograph by Ralph S. Hinman
CHANGING GUARD, A ROUND-UP SCENE IN THE 1890*5 461
Photograph from State Historical Society
A CCC CLASS, NEODESHA 477
Photograph from Soil Conservation Service
A POLITICAL DISCUSSION, OSKALOOSA 483
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
JOHN BROWN S CABIN, OSAWATOMIE 497
Photograph from State Historical Society
TRANSPORTING STEAM SHOVELS FOR STRIP MINING 505
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
COURTHOUSE, COLUMBUS 507
Photograph from Farm Security Administration
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
General Information
Railroads: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. (Santa Fe) ; Chicago, Bur-
lington & Quincy R.R. (Burlington) ; Chicago, Great Western R.R. (Corn
Belt); Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. (Rock Island); Kansas City
Southern Ry.; Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf Ry. (KO&G) ; Missouri-Kansas-
Texas Lines (Katy) ; Missouri Pacific R.R. (MOP) ; Midland Valley R.R. ;
Northeast Oklahoma R.R. (NO) ; St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. (Frisco) ;
St. Joseph & Grand Island Ry. (GI) ; Union Pacific R.R. (UP) ; Joplin-
Pittsburg R.R. ; Kansas City, Kaw Valley & Western R.R. ; Arkansas Val
ley Interurban Ry. (Arkansas Valley) ; Missouri & Kansas R.R. (M&K) ;
Southwest Missouri R.R. (Electric). (See TRANSPORTATION map.)
Highways: Nineteen Federal highways, all with transcontinental or inter
national connections. No motorcar inspection. Gasoline tax 3$. Highway
patrol. Bus lines follow most Federal highways. (See STATE map for
routes.)
Air Lines: Transcontinental & Western Airlines (TWA) and Braniff Air
lines (BA), from Kansas City, Mo. to western and southwestern points,
stop at Wichita.
Motor Vehicle Laws (digest) : No speed limit except on certain stretches
of road where warnings and limits are posted. Spotlights prohibited. No
licenses required for non-residents. Minimum age for drivers, 16 yrs. Per
sonal injury or property damage (over $50) must be reported to some
civil authority. Parking on highway prohibited. Interstate transport trucks
must register at port of entry stations; these are situated within short dis
tance of border on all routes.
Radio: Sixteen stations now operate within the State: at Abilene, Coffey-
ville, Dodge City, Emporia, Salina, Garden City, Hutchinson, Kansas City,
Great Bend, Lawrence (two), Manhattan, Topeka, Pittsburg and Wichita
(two).
Accommodations: In east and central part of State: hotels chiefly in cities;
ample tourist accommodations in well-furnished tourist cabins and mod
ern lodging houses in rural communities and small towns. In western part:
hotels in larger towns; accommodations in rural districts scattered and
limited to small tourist cabins and private homes.
XV
GENERAL INFORMATION
Liquor Regulation: Beer of 3.2 percent alcoholic content sold legally. Sale
or possession of spirituous liquors prohibited.
Climate and Equipment: Slight variation in temperature within the State.
Extremes of temperature in summer and winter with sudden changes in
winter and early spring. Daily newspaper and radio reports on highway
conditions and weather. Topcoats and overcoats necessary September i to
June i.
Poisonous Snakes and Plants: Copperheads and rattlesnakes, while not
common, are found occasionally in rocky wooded areas. Water moccasins
found infrequently in muddy streams and ponds. Poison-ivy common in
wooded areas, but may be easily recognized by its three-petaled leaf.
Fish and Game Laws (digest) : Unlawful to hunt or fish without license
on person, or to trespass upon property without first obtaining consent of
owner. Hunting and fishing license required for men and women between
ages of 1 8 and 70. Shooting from cars, airplanes, or motorboats or upon a
public highway prohibited. Killing of migratory birds prohibited, except
on the wing. Commercial fishing in Missouri River only.
Licenses: Non-resident: hunting, $7; fishing, $3.
Open Season for Fishing: Year round except during spawning season
(Apr. 15 to May 15) for bass, crappie, rock bass, or channel cat.
Limits: Daily catch not to exceed more than 15 total of all species; 30 in
possession. No bass less than 10 in. ; crappie, less than 7 in. ; ring perch,
less than 6 in.; catfish (not including bullheads), less than 12 in.; drum,
less than 10 in.
Prohibited: Use of more than two poles and lines, one trotline having 25
hooks, or 6 banklines with 2 hooks each. Trapping, seining, spearing,
dynamiting, poisoning, ice fishing, or any manner of taking fish except
with artificial lures or baited hooks.
Open Season for Hunting (inclusive) : Fur-bearing animals, Dec. i-Jan.
31 ; quail, Nov. 20-30; doves, Sept. i-Oct. 15; fox-squirrels, Aug. i-Jan. i.
Limits: Quail, daily bag 10, season bag 25; doves, daily bag 20. No sea
son or limit on rabbits.
Prohibited: Killing pheasants, trapping or killing beaver and otter, molest
ing any wild songbird or insectivorous bird, or destroying its nest or eggs.
Season bag limits and other regulations on ducks, geese, brant, coot, jack-
snipe, rails, turkeys, grouse and partridges, are established by the U.S. De-
GENERAL INFORMATION
partment of Agriculture Biological Survey, and vary. Information pub
lished shortly before the season opens; available on application from
county clerk.
General Information and Service: State Chamber of Commerce, National
Reserve Bldg., Topeka. See also general information under cities.
<<<<<<<<<<<
>>>>>>>>>>
Calendar of Events
(nfd means no fixed date)
Jan. 29
nfd
nfd
Feb. 22
nfd
Mar. i
nfd
3d week
last Sun.
4th week
Topeka
Kickapoo
Reservation
Manhattan
Topeka
Wichita
Emporia
Wichita
Topeka
Fort Scott
Emporia
Apr. ist week
after Easter Kansas City
2 d or 3d week Emporia
3d week
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
May 5
4th week
nfd
nfd
Lawrence
Emporia
Leavenworth
Lindsborg
Lindsborg
Kickapoo
Reservation
Pittsburg
Troy
Kansas City
Fort Riley
Abilene
Emporia
Kansas Day Club Banquet
New Years Dance
Farm and Home Week
Washington Day Club Banquet
State Choir and Orchestra Con
certs
St. David s Day Celebration
Girls National Basketball Tour
nament
State High School Basketball
Tournament
Holy City Sacred Cantata
County School Music Festivals
Music Week
College of Emporia Music Fes
tival
Kansas Relays
State High School Music Festi
val, State Teachers College
Competitive ROTC drill
Music Festival, The Messiah
Art Exhibit
Spring Dance
Hi-school Music Festival
Apple Blossom Festival
Mexican Fiesta
Cavalry School Horse Show and
Race Meet
National Coursing Association
Spring Meeting
State-wide Scholarship Contest,
State Teachers College
xvin
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
June nfd
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Hays Academic Music Festival
Lawrence Music Week
Fort Leavenworth Horse Show
Newton Mennonite Music Festival
Wichita Spring Concerts, Singing Quak
ers of Friends University
Newton
Institute of International Rela
tions
July 4
nfd
nfd
nfd
Hutchinson
Topeka
Kickapoo
Reservation
Pottawatomie
Reservation
Fourth of July Fiesta and Ath
letic Carnival
Mexican Fiesta
Corn Dance
Pottawatomie Fair
Aug.
4
ist week
4th week
4th week
4th week
4th week
nfd
nfd
nfd
Nicodemus
Phillipsburg
Stockton
Goodland
lola
Hanover
Salina
Wichita
Winfield
Emancipation Celebration
Rodeo
Western Kansas-Nebraska Fair
Northwest District Free Fair
Southeastern Kansas Exposition
Days of Forty-Nine
Salina Race Meeting
National Semi-Pro Baseball
Tournament
Winfield Race Meet
Sept.
ist week
ist week
ist week
ist week
2d week
15 and 16
3d week
3d week
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
Coffeyville
Ottawa
Belleville
Horton
Topeka
Kansas City
Dodge City
Hutchinson
Fort Scott
Dodge City
Troy
Abilene
Hiawatha
Montgomery County Fair
Franklin County Fair
North-Central Kansas Free Fair
Tri-County Fair
Kansas Free Fair
Mexican Fiesta
Great Southwest Free Fair
Kansas State Fair
Dairy Show
Pioneer Picnic
Apple Harvest Festival
Central Kansas Free Fair
Fall Festival
Oct. 31
Arkansas City Arkalalah
Independence Neewollah (Hallowe en)
4th week of
Oct. or ist
week of
Nov.
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Kansas City
Leavenworth
Kickapoo
Reservation
Abilene
American Royal Live Stock and
Horse Show
Horse Show
Harvest Dance
National Coursing Association
Fall Meeting
State Corn Husking Contest
Nov. ist week
ii
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
Dec. Christmas
Season
Dodge City,
Hays, Pitts-
burg, Salina,
Topeka,
Wichita
Oberlin
Lawrence
Manhattan
Manhattan
Wichita
Atchison
State Teachers Convention
Annual Armistice Day Celebra
tion and Athletic Carnival
University Home-Coming
Kansas State College Home-
Coming
Kansas State High School Band
Contest
Stock Show
Music Festival
PART I
The State and Its People
THE PRAIRIE
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
cene
By WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
ON THE continental map, Kansas is in the exact center of the United
States, a parallelogram with one corner nibbled off by the Missouri
River. The State on this map looks flat and uninteresting topographically,
for within its boundaries are no lakes, no mountains, no really navigable
rivers. It seems to be a rectangle of prairie grass with no more need for a
guide book than is met by its highway junction signs.
Yet this Kansas rectangle has its distinguishing features. These come
not from rivers, mountains, or inland seas, but from the fact that this grass
plot rises nearly 3,000 feet in 400 miles. In that slanting slab of prairie
sod which begins descending eastward just beyond the foothills and rough
country of the Rockies, lie at least two separate economic units. They
amount to two different States. First, they have different soil. The eastern
part of Kansas is a rich, deep, alluvial loam. The western part of Kansas is
a sandy soil made by grinding down the glacial boulders of the Rocky
Mountains in the waters of an ancient inland sea and by great rushing rivers
that rolled along those latitudes. In the second place, not only is the soil
different but the climate somewhat varies in each of these units. Eastern
Kansas is a corn State. We have rainfall three years out of five, generally
eight years out of ten, which will produce corn in most of the counties
east of Hutchinson and Salina. The grass is lush and in central Kansas is
highly charged with lime from those heavily rolling prairies that are called
the Flint Hills, our bluestem pastures. In western Kansas the grass is short,
but shot full of nourishment. Its short fuzz fools strangers into thinking
the land is barren and useless. Yet that short fuzzy will nourish range cattle
adequately and, when the soil is turned over, that sod is rich in those chemi
cals which make wheat. We like to say "Kansas grows the best wheat in the
world." This is not exactly true, but it is true that Kansas grows splendid
wheat, that it grades high, probably on the whole higher than the wheat of
any other State which grows winter wheat. Further north they grow spring
wheat, that is to say in the Dakotas and Manitoba. There they plant their
wheat in the spring and harvest it in the autumn. In western Kansas they
2 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
plant their wheat in the autumn and harvest it in the late spring and early
summer. The rainfall is so distributed and the heat of summer is so devas
tating on these high plains that spring wheat will not prosper.
So there abide here two States: the grazing, farming corn land of east
ern Kansas and the short grass pasture land and great wheat fields of
western Kansas. Eastern Kansas is divided into small farms from 100 to
200 acres. Large-scale farming does not pay except in cattle growing where
the bluestem pastures nourish flocks larger than Abraham ever drove out
of the Land of Ur when he had "cattle on a thousand hills." But mostly in
eastern Kansas the farmer is a barnyard stockman who grows his own
corn, has his own pasture lot, cuts and bales his own alfalfa and hay, puts
up his own fodder in the silo, and is economically sufficient to himself in
the manufacture of the world s beefsteak, ham and eggs, fried chicken, and
butter. In western Kansas, the tendency is to large farms. It is a one crop
country, a statement which needs quick modification, for alfalfa and buffalo
grass pasture and in certain northwest counties of the State an occasional
corn crop makes it possible for the farmer to live on a 2oo-acre farm. But
speaking rather broadly, western Kansas is a wheat bin. Farms are profitable
when they pass 200 acres. Large agricultural units requiring a heavy en
dowment of machinery are fairly profitable in western Kansas. The people
tend to live in towns and villages. They do their farming in August and
September when the great motor plows furrow the fields, and again the
farmers get busy in July when the combines reap and thresh the grain.
The little farm with its garden, its diversified crop, its chickens, its calves,
its pigs, is not found so often in western Kansas, indeed it is found rarely
there. But in eastern Kansas the diversified crop is the normal type.
These geographical, indeed geological, differences between eastern and
western Kansas make different economic interests and different kinds of
people. The eastern Kansas farmer is a thrifty, cautious, diligent descend
ant of the New England Puritan, physically and spiritually. The western
Kansas farmer is a gambler, a go-getter. In western Kansas are many
strains that did not come out of New England. The Mennonites live on
the eastern fringe of western Kansas. They were Germans who lived a
hundred years in Russia before coming to America and they have brought
their own culture, their own civilization, which has persisted through all
the 60 years of their Kansas exile !
So in our politics, eastern and western Kansas often find antagonistic
interests, honest and deeply divisory differences. Western Kansas, in poli
tics, is inclined to be clannish. Western Kansans form blocs in the legis
lature. They throw their votes in the ballot box to men who best represent
CONTEMPORARY SCENE 3
their interests, which are somewhat different from the interests of eastern
Kansas. Problems of taxes, of education, of transportation are not the same
in the rolling prairie country, four or five tiers of counties in from the
Missouri Line, as they are in that flat, lovely plains country, four or five
tiers east of the Colorado Line.
So the parallelogram 400 by 200 in the center of our Nation is some
thing different in reality from its appearance on the map. Every State is
unique, but Kansas is visibly so, because of its geography and geology. In
these latter days of the mid-third of the century, oil is coming into western
Kansas to transform its civilization entirely. Oil will modify its politics. It
will change the social outlook of its people. We shall have a kingdom of
oil and wheat out of the high plains west of Newton and Abilene, the old
cow towns of the cattle days, a State which will be rich in spots, polka-
dotted with well-to-do farms and highly civilized country towns. Three
times in the history of Kansas, western Kansas has completely changed. It
had its energized vision in its pioneer days of the i88o s; its discouraging
and desolate days just before the discovery of winter wheat in the 1890*5;
its days of high prosperity in the first two decades of the century, climax
ing in the wheat bonanza days of the War. And now comes oil to change
it again. In the meanwhile eastern Kansas goes on with a distinctly evolu
tionary line of progress from the days of the Civil War until today. Noth
ing has ever changed radically in eastern Kansas in economics or in agri
culture. Within 70 years prosperity has come in waves, slowly but steadily.
These words of preface are necessary before one reads the Guide Book
to this midcontinental rectangle of grass prairie and high plains that is
known to her neighbors and the world as Kansas: "First in freedom, first
in wheat!"
Natural Settini
(
and Conservation
A GREAT rectangle in form, with the northeast corner cut off by the
Missouri River, Kansas is bounded on the north by Nebraska, on
the east by Missouri, on the south by Oklahoma, and on the west by Colo
rado. It contains both the geodetic and the geographic centers of conti
nental United States. The geodetic center, from which the U. S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey calculates latitude and longitude is on Meade s ranch in
Osborne County ; the geographic center is commonly accepted as being on
the Fort Riley Reservation in Geary County. Kansas extends 410 miles
east and west, and 210 miles north and south. It has a total area of
82,158 square miles, of which 384 are water surface.
Topography and Climate
Contrary to popular belief, the State is not a flat, featureless plain. The
surface slopes eastward from an elevation of 4,135 feet along the western
boundary to 734 feet in the southeastern corner, and is drained by two
main watersheds. The Kansas River with its tributaries flows eastward
through the northern half of the State, and the Arkansas with its tribu
taries flows in a general southeast direction through the southern part.
Between these two river basins a small area is drained by the Marais des
Cygnes, and in the extreme northeast the streams flow into the Missouri.
Topographically, Kansas may be divided into three sections: the High
Plains, constituting approximately the western third ; a large area of nearly
flat land, called the Low Plains or the Great Bend Prairie in the center;
and the Flint Hills region or, as it has been more recently called, the
Bluestem Belt occupying the eastern third.
In this section the broad river valleys, cutting through the uplands and
affording picturesque vistas, are covered with rich silt deposits, and the
soil permits a more diversified agriculture than is found in the central and
4
NATURAL SETTING AND CONSERVATION 5
western sections of the State. The uplands are rolling, interspersed with
limestone cliffs. The most prominent of these are the Flint Hills which
extend from the Oklahoma to the Nebraska lines and include the greater
part of ten counties and the lesser part of three additional ones. Here
grow bluestem grasses, making a grazing region unlike any other in the
country, excepting the Osage section of Oklahoma which is, in reality, an
extension of the Bluestem Belt. Rainfall is sufficient to permit the growth
of timber in the plains and valley slopes, and even the hills in the north
eastern part are heavily wooded.
In the central portion of the State, north of the Great Bend Prairie, lie
the Smoky Hills Upland and the Blue Hills Upland. South of the prairie
area are the Cimarron Breaks, heavily eroded cliffs and terraces bordering
the Cimarron River.
Only in the western third of the State is the terrain comparatively
monotonous and treeless. Professor Kenneth K. Landes, assistant State
geologist, has pointed out that, though the Great Plains are undistin
guished from a scenic standpoint, they have an interesting geological
history. "They were made by ancient streams," he writes, "that flowed east
ward from the Rocky Mountains carrying an enormous load of gravel,
sand, and silt which was deposited to a depth of many feet along a wide
belt extending from Canada to Texas. . . . Two streams that cross the
High Plains of Kansas, the Arkansas and the Smoky Hill, have excavated
their valleys below the base of the prehistoric river deposits, thereby
exposing the older and underlying rock."
The Smoky Hill River, cutting through the sand and silt deposits which
floor the High Plains in Logan and Gove Counties, has laid bare expanses
of white, yellow, and orange chalk formations. These are considered the
outstanding natural wonders in the State. Water and wind erosion have
exposed fossil beds here containing many specimens of extinct species of
fish, flying reptiles, and prehistoric birds. Castle Rock, a chalk spire in
western Gove County, rises to seventy feet and is visible for miles. Also
in this section are the Monument Rocks or "Pyramids," and a chalk pile
which wind and water have carved into a likeness of the Sphinx.
Other unusual formations are Kansas natural bridge and a cave cut
through gypsum rock, both in Barber County. The mesas and buttes found
in this area are not unlike those that dot the landscape in New Mexico.
The cap rock is of white gypsum and the slopes are of red shale or sand
stone. Nearby, in Comanche County, is Hell s Half Acre, a spot of unique
beauty; and in Clark County is the Little Basin, one of Kansas sink holes
or sinks, as they are more commonly called.
6 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
These are depressions in the land surface which occur, geologists ex
plain, when the soluble rock layers are dissolved by underground water.
The roofs of the subterranean caves, thus formed, crumble and the over
lying rocks sink down below the normal level of the terrain. The Little
Basin is believed to be many centuries old, judging by the evidence of
large trees which grow along its inner walls. One-half mile west of Little
Basin is Big Basin, a crater-like depression a mile in diameter and 100
feet deep. Formerly considered the crater of an extinct volcano, it is now
regarded as a sink of similar origin to others in the State.
The largest of these depressions developed with dramatic speed in Sep
tember 1937 on a wheat farm near Potwin in Butler County. Shortly after
the completion of fall plowing, the farmer noticed a large depression in
his field. Twenty-four hours later the earth caved in, leaving a hole 300
feet long and 250 feet wide, which later partially filled with water. In
1930 an unusual sink hole developed in Hamilton County. Beginning as
a small circular hollow near the Colorado line, this depression deepened
until whole sections of a county road were engulfed. When last measured
this sink was 100 feet across and nearly 50 feet deep.
The climate is unusually variable with extremes of temperature and an
unusual abundance of sunshine, conditions resulting in great measure from
the State s location. Almost midway between the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans and approximately 600 miles distant from any large body of water,
Kansas lies in the path of air currents moving north from the tropics and
south from the Arctic Circle.
The yearly mean temperature is 54 degrees; January is the coldest
month, and July the hottest. The term "sunny" is well deserved, for no
other part of the country receiving as much rain has so many clear days.
A 3 8 -year record shows that there have never been more than 104 cloudy
days in any year. The amount of cloudiness is greatest in the eastern part
of the State, but even here the record for sun is high. At Lawrence in
northeast Kansas the sky is overcast 59 per cent of the time in April, the
cloudiest month, while in August, the sunniest month, it is overcast only
35 per cent of the time.
The average rainfall is approximately 26 inches, but it is very unevenly
distributed. In the southeast section, where rainfall is heaviest, the annual
average is 40 inches; this decreases to 15 inches at the western border.
Precipitation in the form of snow is common during the winter months-
December through March although the ground is rarely covered with
snow for more than a few days at a time.
Differences in wind velocities in the eastern and western sections are
^jnil!!%^MM&k
Pointing by John Steuart Curry
TORNADO
almost as marked as the differences in rainfall. In the eastern third the
winds are not noticeably higher than those in the eastern part of the coun
try as a whole; the western third of the State, however, is one of the
windiest inland spots in the Nation. Winds of high velocity in this section
blow loose soil into "dust storms" and lead to wind erosion during the
dry season in winter or early spring.
Though Kansas has acquired the reputation of being a tornado State,
records show that these storms do not occur here with any greater fre
quency than in other Plains States. Tornadoes strike the eastern part of
Kansas oftener than the western, and are more likely to occur in late
spring or early summer than at other times of the year.
What is believed to be the first fixed schedule of radio transmissions of
weather reports in the United States was inaugurated by the physics de
partment of the State college at Manhattan in 1912 when station 9YV
began a daily broadcast of weather conditions.
Recent years of almost unprecedented drought have led to the often
expressed belief that the climate of Kansas is changing. Geologists and
meteorologists, however, point out that weather runs in cycles, the most
pronounced being about a third of a century in length. Conditions during
8 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
a cycle are easily mistaken by laymen for permanent changes. Despite year
by year fluctuations in temperature and precipitation, recorded evidence
shows that general climatic conditions remain unchanged.
Glacial Deposits
In the Mississippi Valley the ice cap of the glacial age extended as far
south as the present sites of Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, and Kansas
City in Kansas. The great ice sheets passed over hills and valleys, carrying
with them great loads of rock, gravel, sand, and clay which they ground
and scraped from the surface. Rocks and boulders, frozen into the bottom
of the glacier, scratched and grooved the solid rock beneath. As the ice
sheets melted, the accumulated materials were left behind, either spread
over the surface or piled into ranges of irregular hills, known as moraines.
The second of the four great ice sheets was the only one that invaded
the region, but it left an indelible mark on northeastern Kansas the area
lying north and east of the Kaw and Big Blue Rivers. As a result, this
section differs in many respects from the rest of the State. The surface is
covered by glacial drift or till, a confused mixture of clay, sand, gravel,
and boulders that is found on hilltops as well as in valleys. The pebbles
and boulders are of varying shapes and colors. South and southwest of
Atchison the drift is unusually stony. In many places, however, it is com
posed of clay with few pebbles and boulders. The heaviest deposits are
found in Nemaha and in portions of Brown and Jackson Counties, where
the drift is from thirty to one hundred feet in thickness. From this central
area of heavy deposit the drift thins to less than five feet in thickness on
the borders of the glaciated region.
Numerous boulders lie scattered over the pastures in this section of the
State, most of them red or pinkish in color and hard as flint. These
boulders of red quartzite have been used to some extent in building con
struction and are locally known as "niggerheads." Boulders of granite and
other types of rock are also found. They are most abundant south of the
Kaw River in the vicinity of Wamego, a few miles south of Topeka,
and near Westmoreland in Pottawatomie County. None of these belong to
the rock systems of the region; their nearest ledges are in southeastern
Minnesota and South Dakota.
The influence of the ice sheet on northeastern Kansas was, on the whole,
beneficial. The glacier brought vast quantities of rich fertile soil, filled
depressions and valleys, and produced large areas suitable for farming.
The heart of the glacial section in Brown and Nemaha Counties is per-
NATURAL SETTING AND CONSERVATION 9
haps the finest agricultural land in Kansas. The glacier also deposited
great quantities of sands and gravels that have been utilized in road and
Duilding construction.
Fossil Remains
The vast deposits of fossils found in the chalk beds of Gove and Trego
Counties have long attracted the attention of scientists. Since their dis
covery in the i86o s these beds have been visited by distinguished scien
tists from all parts of the world, and many specimens have been removed
and placed in museums. The majority of these remains of ancient animals
have been petrified. In some instances only an imprint has been left; in
others, part or all of the original skeletal structures are preserved.
"The medieval age of geology," writes Professor Norman D. Newell,
of the University of Kansas geology department, "is sometimes called the
age of reptiles ; the rocks of this age are distinguished by the skeletons of
scores of kinds of reptiles, ranging from huge ones a hundred feet in
length with a weight of several tons, down to lizards the size of a
mouse . . . The conclusion is unavoidable that where now stands Kansas,
the driest of dry land, was formerly a mighty sea in which lived the
thousands of sea denizens now found buried in the rocks beneath the
soil."
Shark teeth and fossil remains of huge whale-like reptiles and of large
turtles, of the type found only in the sea, have been discovered in the
rocks of western Kansas. The deposits also yielded many specimens of
birds with teeth, belonging to the medieval geologic age. Two distinct
types are found, both adapted to swimming. One was a small shore bird
with powerful wings ; the other a small-winged diving bird about six feet
in length. Prehistoric oyster beds have also been uncovered in this part of
the State.
At the time of the earliest Spanish explorations in America there were
no horses in either North or South America. The wild herds that roamed
the Western plains in later years were descended from those brought by
Coronado and other explorers. The horse, however, is known to have
existed in prehistoric Kansas, and is preserved in the rocks of these west
ern counties. The skeleton of what is believed to be the oldest horse was
found in these rock strata a small animal, scarcely a foot high, with
three toes on its hind feet and four toes on its front feet. Specimens of
miniature horses, found in each successive stratum, show the evolution of
the modern horse. A progressive loss of toes and an increase in size may
10 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
be traced, until a horse quite similar to the modern animal was developed.
Dinosaurs have not as yet been discovered in Kansas, but geologists are
almost certain that they once existed here, because their remains are found
in the adjoining State of Colorado.
Coal and other types of rock formation known to have been formed on
land rather than in the sea, and evidences of erosion by rivers within the
sequences of rocks, have led geologists to conclude that prehistoric Kansas
was inundated by the sea at least fifty times. An ancient mountain range
of granite peaks and ridges that traversed eastern Kansas from north to
south known to geologists as the Nemaha Mountains was buried be
neath the floor of the prehistoric sea by the accumulation of sediment.
Some of the deepest wells drilled in Kansas have passed through more
than 5,000 feet of rocks before reaching the granite which underlies the
entire State. This mile deep layer of rock, according to geologists, is the
hardened mud that accumulated in the sea bed during the long period of
advancing and retreating waters.
Natural Resources and Their Conservation
Minerals: The mineral industry is second in importance to agriculture in
Kansas. The value of its mineral products has increased from $58,471,000
in 1932 to $121,723,000 in 1936. For the latter year the principal mineral
products in order of value were petroleum, natural gas, zinc, and stone.
Kansas ranked second among all the States in quantity and value of zinc
and zinc-lead ores, third in quantity and value of chats, and third in value
of salt. For the past twenty years it has taken the lead in the production of
pumice or pumicite (volcanic ash). Other mineral products include cement,
clay products, coal, and gypsum.
Coal, lead, and zinc are mined in the southeastern counties, Crawford
and Cherokee. Here coal stripping operations have created large expanses
of waste land, which have recently been transformed into the Crawford
County State Park by the State forestry, fish and game commission, with
the aid of the WPA. Coal is also mined in Osage and Leavenworth Coun
ties, and large clay deposits are found in Cherokee County.
The first oil prospecting in Kansas was near Paola in Miami County.
Though oil is now produced in nearly every section of the State, the
largest fields have been developed from the pools in the central counties
of Butler, Cowley, McPherson, Marion, Rice, and Sedgwick. Oil develop
ment has been moving westward in recent years, however, and new fields
have been opened in Russell, Reno, Barton, Ellis, Stafford, and Clark
NATURAL SETTING AND CONSERVATION II
counties. The principal gas fields are in Allen County in the eastern sec
tion of the State and in Stevens County in the southwest ; gas has also been
d scovered in many other parts of the State. Salt is found in Republic,
Reno, Rice, Ellsworth, and Harper counties. Gypsum is mined in Marshall,
Barber, and Comanche counties. There are large deposits of volcanic ash
in Meade, Sheridan, Rawlins, Wallace, and Comanche counties. Meade
County, which leads the State in the production of volcanic ash, has at
least twelve separate deposits.
Plant Life: Native grasses, which cover about one-third of Kansas, are
its most valuable form of plant life, protecting the soil from erosion and
depletion, and forming the basis for the State s enormous livestock indus
try. There are 60 different groups of grasses, subdivided into 194 species.
E luestem has the greatest forage value, and both species big and little
bluestem, also known as bluejoint turkeyfoot and prairie beardgrass
grow in almost all parts of the State.
The tall grasses are confined to east Kansas. Indian grass thrives in the
valleys, little bluestem on the uplands, and sideoat grama on the hill
sides. Prairie dropseed and sand dropseed are found in the drier sections,
while sloughgrass commonly borders the streams.
In western Kansas the short grasses dominate. Buffalo, blue grama, and
hairy grama are, in the order named, the chief forage grasses. Sand reed
and turkeyfoot grow in the semi-arid southwest, and saltgrass and alkali
sacaton in the alkaline soils.
With a few exceptions the short grasses grow in practically every part
of the State. Also ubiquitous, but of little or no grazing value, are tumble-
grass, green bristle, tickle and love grasses, switch grass and western
wheatgrass, which thrives best in the north central section.
The early settlers found few trees in Kansas. The soil and climate of
the western area precluded the natural growth of forests, while the woods
in the central and eastern parts of the State had been repeatedly damaged
by prairie fires. These were set by the Indians to induce early pasturage
for game animals and to prevent invasion by hostile tribes.
Extensive tree planting was begun immediately after the Civil War,
and was stimulated by the Federal timber culture act which gave 160 acres
of free land to anyone who agreed to grow 10 acres of timber on it. In
1887 the State legislature established two agencies which propagated and
distributed many thousand seedling trees during the next twenty years.
This work was taken over by the State nursery at Hays in 1907, in cooper
ation with the forest service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The
MONUMENT ROCKS, NEAR GOVE
State forestry, fish and game commission, established in 1925, has chiefly
limited its forestation activities to plantings in State parks, but a broader
program will probably be undertaken eventually. About 3,000 acres of
strip-pit land, given to the commission for reforestation in 1934, were
placed under the management of the U. S. Forest Service. This agency,
aided by the Civilian Conservation Corps, leveled the area and planted it,
chiefly with walnut trees.
Today, Kansas has about 225,000,000 trees, not counting its fruit and
street trees. One native conifer, red cedar, is found pretty generally
throughout the State. Hackberry, linden, oak, willow, and sycamore grow
in east Kansas. Black walnut also thrives here and is economically valuable
for furniture and other manufactured products. In western Kansas box
elder and cottonwood predominate; the latter is used for excelsior, berry
boxes and other soft wood commercial containers. A wide variety of other
trees now grow in the State, particularly in the southeast corner. Many
regions, once treeless, are now well wooded with orchards, shelterbelts,
and woodlots ; trees shade the highways and border the fences.
The sunflower s glowing head is seen everywhere in Kansas, and it has
NATURAL SETTING AND CONSERVATION 13
been fittingly chosen as the official State flower. A succession of wild
flower blooms dot the prairies delicate yellow, lavender, and white in
the spring; orange and purple in summer, when the hot sun turns the
grass gray-green. Botanists list 80 flower families, and about 450 species
of wild flowers. Among the most widely distributed are the wild daisy,
aster, goldenrod, columbine, prairie phlox, clover, and thistle. Many spe
cies adapt themselves to different growing conditions. Thus the tall sun
flower of the eastern farmlands becomes knee high further west; the
spotted evening primrose, ivyleaved morning glory, and large-flowered
verbena of eastern Kansas have western counterparts in the white evening
primrose, bush morning glory, and small-flowered verbena.
Wild Life: In the i86o s Kansas was known as a hunter s paradise, and
shooting parties from as far away as Europe bagged huge quantities of
game. The timbered sections of eastern Kansas abounded with bear and
panther, with timber wolf, deer, otter, beaver, and smaller fur-bearing
animals. Farther west, prairie wolves, wild horses and vast herds of buf
falo ranged the High Plains. There were quail, wild turkeys, and other
game birds, and migratory waterfowl in great numbers.
The destruction of the buffalo may be taken as an example of what
happened to most of this teeming wild life. Hunters ruthlessly slaughtered
thousands of buffalo, ripping off the hides and leaving the carcasses to rot
on the prairie. One huntsman boasted that he killed 120 buffalo in 40
minutes. By the early i88o s, scarcely a decade after settlement was begun
in western Kansas, the buffalo was extinct. Antelope, bear, and deer met
with similar fate. The wild horse, because of its greater sagacity, survived
and migrated west to more inaccessible regions.
Except for isolated county regulations to protect small game and con
trol crop-damaging animals, no attempt was made to conserve wild life
until the State forestry, fish and game commission was established by the
State legislature in 1925. By this time grouse and wild turkey had been
exterminated, prairie chicken and quail were diminishing rapidly. The
central flyways of migratory birds, which once crossed Kansas, had shifted
and many species of ducks and geese, formerly abundant, were nesting
farther north.
The legislature gave the commission authority over fish and game,
which were declared to be the property of the State. Subsequent legislative
action has strengthened the original law, until Kansas has, today, conser
vation measures which compare favorably with those of other States. The
commission s budget, derived from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses,
14 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
has never exceeded $250,000 biennially. But despite inadequate funds,
progress in conservation has been steady. The chukar partridge, an Asiatic
species, and several hardy species of quail have been introduced into the
State, and a method of propagating prairie chickens has been developed.
Approximately 10,500 pheasants and 52,000 quail were distributed in the
decade 1926-36. An important phase of the commission s work is the
development of recreational areas, chiefly in connection with the construc
tion of artificial lakes. These are stocked with fish from the State hatchery
at Pratt.
Though the abundant wild life of early Kansas can, obviously, not be
restored, game and other animal and bird life is plentiful. Rabbit, musk-
rat, opossum, coyote, and raccoon are relatively abundant. There are twelve
species of bat, two of shrew and of mole, and three of pocket gopher. The
State s native birds include the American goldfinch, American robin, blue
jay, cardinal, Carolina wren, hairy woodpecker, western meadowlark, and
several species of hawk. In winter, tree sparrows, longspurs, and slate-
colored j uncos sojourn in Kansas; among the summer residents are cat
bird, brown thrasher, ruby-throated hummingbird, and scarlet tanager.
The Nathaniel Stickeny Goss ornithological collection in the State
Historical Museum at Topeka contains mounted specimens of nearly every
variety of bird found in Kansas. Goss (1826-1891), known as the "Kan
sas Audubon," spent more than thirty years gathering material for his
History of the Birds of Kansas, completed shortly before his death.
In addition to the State and Federal conservation agencies, private citi
zens take an active interest in the restoration and preservation of the
State s plant and wild life through the Kansas Fish and Game Protective
Association, Kansas State Game Preservation Association, State division of
the Isaak Walton League of America, and Audubon Society of Kansas.
Soil and Water: The future welfare of the State depends largely upon
the effectiveness with which its two greatest natural resources water and
soil are conserved. There is very little soil in Kansas unfit for cultiva
tion; smooth topography, abundant sunshine, and length of growing sea
son are all favorable. The one disadvantageous factor is the scarcity of
water. The destructive forces of drought and flood were not unknown in
the State in the nineteenth century; there were 6 droughts and 16 floods
between 1860 and 1900. But in recent years these related problems have
been alarmingly aggravated. Increasing crop failures and flood losses
testify to the fact that droughts have become more severe and destructive
overflow more frequent. Decades of soil-destroying farming methods have
Mi
* w-
FIELD PLOWED BY DAMMING LISTER, A FLOOD CONTROL FEATURE
stripped the land of its water-retention properties. The resultant rapid
runoff of rain leads, in turn, to three evils flood, erosion, and a lowered
groundwater supply.
Fifty-seven lives and property damage estimated at $36,000,000 resulted
from the floods of 1903. Spurred by this disaster, the legislature passed a
law providing for the organization of drainage districts by cities and
counties; this plan superseded flood control work based on the township
unit. Eighty-five drainage districts were set up, protecting only 265,000 of
the 1,200,000 acres subject to overflow. These districts were widely sepa
rated ; they adhered to no uniform plan, safeguarded no area except their
immediate region, ignored the necessity of water conservation. In short,
they relied on hit-or-miss methods to cope with a problem that called for
Jong range and State-wide planning.
Between 1900 and 1917 Kansas suffered four severe droughts and 55
destructive floods. These apparently unrelated disasters were gradually
diagnosed as symptoms of a disease that affected the whole State rather
than isolated localities. The legislature consequently established the Kansas
Water Commission in 1917 "to secure the most advantageous adjustment
of interests involved in floods, drainage, irrigation, water power and
navigation." A division of irrigation was organized in 1919 under the
supervision of the State board of agriculture. Later these two agencies
were consolidated as the division of water resources.
At a general conference held in Topeka in 1927 the division of water
l6 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
resources appointed the so-called Paulen Committee to study the flood
control systems of Kansas. The committee s report showed that the drain
age districts were merely inadequate makeshifts. As a result of these find
ings the legislature passed a conservancy act in 1929, patterned after the
excellent Ohio conservancy act, which provided for a State-wide program
of irrigation and flood control.
The Kansas supreme court shortly declared the Conservancy Act uncon
stitutional, thus leaving the problem unsolved. Water erosion continued
to gnaw at Kansas farmlands; the unharnessed rivers continued to wash
away millions of cubic yards of silt ; and the ground water level continued
to fall, thereby jeopardizing the water supply of 80 per cent of the
population.
The various agencies that surveyed the Kansas water problem from time
to time were agreed on two points: that rainfall should be retained where
it fell by means of land terracing, cover crops, contour farming, and
similar devices ; and that runoff at the sources of sub-tributaries should be
prevented by the construction of reservoirs and pasture ponds. None but
the last of these recommendations was acted upon by the legislature. A
law passed in 1929, and amended four years later, provided for the reduc
tion of taxes on farmlands whose owners constructed pasture ponds.
Engineers estimated that 50,000 pasture ponds, exclusive of five large
reservoirs in each county, would be required to assure adequate flood con
trol and water conservation. That this number would not be built by
private capital was a foregone conclusion and the aid of the Federal Gov
ernment was accordingly enlisted. The Kansas Emergency Relief Adminis
tration undertook a program of reservoir construction and completed 27
lakes and 3,000 farm and garden ponds. The WPA later built 15 lakes
and 256 ponds. But these, together with 125 State lakes and an unknown
number of privately built ponds, fell far short of the required number.
Some distress has been alleviated, however, and the ultimate, adequate
conservation of water has been given a measure of certainty.
About forty million acres, or three-fourths of the area of Kansas, have
been damaged in varying degree by erosion. Water erosion has scarred the
land in eastern and northern Kansas, while wind erosion has worked great
loss in the western part of the State. The general productivity of the soil
has been lowered, in some instances, as much as twenty per cent.
In the period between 1933 and 1937 western Kansas suffered an acute
shortage of rainfall. Crop failures in fields prepared for wheat left the
land without a protective mantle of vegetation, and top soil was lifted by
"DUST BOWL" FARM AFTER THE STORMS, NEAR LIBERAL
the wind and carried away. By 1935 almost nine million acres of once
green farmlands had been scraped and gouged by wind erosion.
Their land made waste by the wind, their reserve capital depleted by
repeated crop failures, the wheat farmers clamored for aid to prevent their
fields from turning into deserts. The extension service of Kansas State
College began to instruct farmers in tillage methods that resisted wind
erosion. The Kansas Emergency Relief Committee appropriated $364,136
which was used in 1935 to buy fuel for tractors and feed for horses. Soil
listing, strip chiseling, basin listing, strip cropping, and similar measures
were applied to 3,350,000 acres.
Under the direction of the U. S. Forest Service, the Prairie States For
estry Project of the WPA has planted shelter belts in 20 counties in south-
central Kansas. These belts, established on 16,400 acres of farm land, are
now three years old and have proved their worth not only in halting wind
18 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
erosion but in protecting crops. A total of 1,500 miles have been planted
with 5,500,000 trees.
About 5,500,000 acres in western Kansas suffered from wind erosion in
1936. An extensive tillage project was carried on throughout the year with
funds obtained from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. About 2,546,-
834 acres were tilled through Government aid, and 120,000 acres were
tilled at private expense. Funds that remained from the original grant of
the U. S. Department of Agriculture were expended in further tillage
projects in 1937.
The Kansas legislature enacted a law in 1937 which empowered the
board of commissioners in each county to conduct an annual survey of
farmlands to determine the areas damaged by wind erosion; "to order that
the land be disked, or listed, or chiseled, or cultivated in any particular
manner/ and to create a "soil drifting fund" by tax levy. The law also
provided that the cost of cultivation be assessed against the farm owner in
cases which involved deliberate failure to comply with certain erosion-
prevention measures.
The Land Utilization Administration of the Federal Government pur
chased 100,000 acres of sub-marginal Kansas land in 1938 on which
experiments in terracing, contour tillage, and basin listing were con
ducted. Several varieties of drought-resistant crops were successively
grown, while wind-eroded hills in the area were planted with cover crops.
To enable impoverished wheat farmers to benefit from the methods devel
oped by experimentation in tillage and crop growing, the Farm Security
Administration has made loans to 18,868 Kansas applicants.
The adoption of a subsistence farming irrigation plan for southwest
Kansas was advocated by Dodge City conservationists, who met with rep
resentatives of the Farm Security Administration in September 1938.
Officials of this agency and of the Soil Conservation Service had previously
announced that a project had been authorized for a ground water survey
of western Kansas under the direction of these two agencies. Farm opera
tors may receive assistance in developing stock ponds, pumping plants for
irrigation purposes, and other water resources on a long term loan basis.
The plan is to supplement the rainfall by irrigation in dry years, thus
assuring a crop under unfavorable conditions and enabling the farmer to
raise livestock feed and seed to tide him over until a favorable year. Com
mercial irrigation projects are discouraged. A preliminary survey, which
began in the late fall of 1938, was conducted for the purpose of deter
mining water facilities best adapted for the individual farm. All informa
tion is tabulated for future use and additional data is obtained by drilling,
NATURAL SETTING AND CONSERVATION 19
when necessary. Experimental projects have been developed on the
Solomon River in northwest Kansas and in the Walnut Creek Valley in
Ness and Lane Counties. Similar projects are planned for the Crooked
Creek area in Ford County and the Arkansas Valley near Lamed.
Land and water economy must be adjusted to "the State s scant and
unreliable water supply," Professor Harlan M. Barrows, of the Water
Committee of the National Resources Committee, has pointed out. "No
more is possible. Harmonious adjustment to the ways of nature in the
Plains must take the place of attempts to conquer her. To hope that she
may change her ways is futile."
y
NO EXHAUSTIVE study has yet been made of the prehistoric past
of Kansas, though the State is rich in archeological remains.
Ancient village sites, mounds, battle fields, stone and clay workshops, and
artifacts have been found in nearly every county. Relics range from the
most primitive stone implements to artifacts and pottery showing skilled
workmanship. One of the most important archeological finds in the State
was the "Lansing Man * exhumed at Lansing, Leavenworth County, in
1902 and now in the National Museum, Washington, D. C. The discov
ery, consisting of a skull and some other skeletal parts of a human male,
was found in an undisturbed loess drift under a stratum of carboniferous
limestone twenty feet below the surface.
In Douglas, Potawatomi, Riley, Dickinson, Ellsworth, Marion, and
Lincoln counties potsherds, bone and flint artifacts, and other relics have
been found at depths of twenty to thirty feet. In Morris County, on
Clark s Creek near Skiddy, a sort of oven or fireplace of matched stones
was uncovered at a depth of sixteen feet. It rested on a solid ledge of rock
several feet below the present channel of the stream and was surrounded
with ashes, charcoal, bones, and flint artifacts. Of special significance is a
small coin-shaped disk of some brass-like metal found nearby. Seven or
eight feet above the fireplace and at about the same depth from the sur
face was the stump of an oak tree in the place of its growth, indicating
the great age of the find and pointing to early occupancy of the region by
Stone Age Americans.
Archeological remains show that both sedentary people and hunting
tribes occupied Kansas in prehistoric times. The sedentary folk were agri
culturists who constructed mounds of stone and earth, made and used
earthen vessels and exquisitely wrought flint implements. The hunters
were probably nomadic, making little pottery and relying upon the chase
to supply them with food. There is evidence that both types of aborigines
alternately occupied some of the village sites.
Although Kansas lacks the impressive earthworks characteristic of the
mound builder sites of the Mississippi Valley, there are numerous earthen
20
ARCHEOLOGY 21
remains within the State, particularly in the eastern part along the river
bottoms. Waterways served the mound builders as highways for travel,
and the distribution of the several groups or subareas correspond to and
were determined by the water systems. According to the classification
adopted by archeologists Kansas mound remains are included in the cul
tural division known as the Upper Mississippi area. They form a marginal
district, since the mound-building practice reached its western limit among
the Kansas tribes. It is possible that these tribes were akin to the Missis
sippi people but were culturally different. They seem to have been more
migratory than the advanced eastern tribes, and therefore left less preten
tious remains and fewer walled defenses. But their many sites scattered
over the State, indicate that they were a numerous people.
Most of the Kansas earthworks appear to be the remains of domiciliary
sites. The common type of mounds are circular in form, twenty to twenty-
five feet in diameter, and from two to three feet high. Some of them are
apparently the caved-in ruins of timber-framed lodges, domeshaped and
covered with earth ; they were perhaps built and occupied by the ancestors
of the present-day Caddoan peoples who left many such remains in the
adjoining states. Those that have been excavated contained the bones of
animals, broken catlinite pipes, metates of sandstone, grooved hammers,
charcoal and ashes, as well as the usual collection of potsherds, arrow
heads, scrapers, and flint knives. In one of them was also found a piece of
chain mail in an advanced state of disintegration, indicating that these
Indians were in contact with early European explorers, possibly Coronado
or some of his party.
Exploration of Kansas mounds was begun in the i88o s when Professor
J. A. Udden of Bethany College, Lindsborg, explored a series of fifteen
mounds along Paint Creek, a tributary to the Smoky Hill River. His dis
coveries attracted outside authorities, and in the nineties Jacob V. Brower
of St. Paul, Minnesota, made an extensive survey in Geary, Riley, and
Wabaunsee counties, resulting in the exploration of more than 100 village
sites and the accumulation of nearly 10,000 specimens. This collection,
considered one of the best and most extensive in the country, is now in the
museum of the Kansas State Historical Society at Topeka. It shows the
entire range of aboriginal artifacts, from grindstones to bone fishhooks,
from bird bone and shell beads to ornamented pottery.
Following Brower s discoveries, George J. Remsburg, of Potter, and
Mark E. Zimmerman, of White Cloud, instituted a series of explorations
in Atchison, Doniphan, and Leavenworth counties, which also yielded a
large collection of relics. On a bluff along the Missouri River near Atchi-
22 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
son they found a dozen skeletons and a quantity of bone, flint, and pottery
articles. They also discovered an unusually large and ancient cemetery at
Oak Mills, containing hundreds of flint and stone weapons, implements,
and potsherds buried with the skeletal remains.
During this exploration, Remsburg discovered the site of "Quans," the
grand village of the Kansa Indians, a tribe of Siouan stock. It had been
described by the early French explorers but was not found for so long a
time that men began to think of it as another fabled city. Remsburg proves
that the town of Doniphan, six miles north of Atchison, occupies the
ancient site.
Zimmerman unearthed two villages near the mouth of the Nemaha
River, containing sixty skulls, and the shell tempered pottery and cist
graves characteristic of the Tennessee-Cumberland area. From this evidence
is deduced that the sites marked the western limit of mound-building peo
ple in Kansas.
Other mounds have been explored, and many have not yet been touched.
Among the latter are the five or more probably the largest in Kansas
near Edwardsville in Wyandotte County. These mounds are about five
feet high, twenty-five feet in diameter, and stand fifty feet apart. Their
great age is indicated by the heavy growth of oak timber which hid them
before the ground was cleared. Many stone and flint implements have
been found in the vicinity.
The mound-building trait apparently died out in Kansas in early his
toric times, but the mound builders must have exerted cultural influence
upon the later tribes, or were, some contend, their actual ancestors. The
Caddoan Pawnee, who had many towns along the Smoky Hill River, were
the most distinctly agricultural tribe of the plains in modern times. Among
the Pawnee peoples there survived even in recent years, many customs
found among the Aztec when the Spaniards first met them. The story of
these later tribes the Pawnee of Caddoan stock and the Kansa or Kaw
of the Siouan group is written in the old lodge rings and village sites
scattered in moderate profusion throughout the State and found usually a
foot or so below the surface. Gathering of these data was begun in the
i86o s when Professor Benjamin F. Mudge, first State geologist, made
surveys of certain portions of the State. Goodnow s survey was in the
vicinity of Manhattan, where he accumulated a considerable collection of
flint implements, bone heads, pottery, and other artifacts. Operating prin
cipally in Rice, Riley, Cloud, and Geary counties, Mudge discovered the
first of the clay workshops in Cloud County, on the Solomon River. It
ARCHEOLOGY 23
contains fragments of the bake ovens, partly moulded clay, and bits of
finished pottery.
About three miles north of Neodesha on the Verdigris River an exten
sive fort and village site were found, probably a center of considerable
importance. The fort, formed somewhat like a horseshoe with opening
toward the east, was made up of two parallel lines of pits with an elevated
ridge in the center formed from the dirt taken from the pits. Many
specimens of pottery and buffalo bones have been taken from this site,
indicating that the inhabitants were skilled in pottery making and sub
sisted to a considerable extent on the flesh of the buffalo. Other village
sites found along the creeks in McPherson, Saline, Dickinson, Morris, and
Geary counties, have yielded large numbers of flint hoes, spades, and other
digging implements, from which it is presumed that their owners engaged,
at least to some degree, in agriculture.
Big Springs in southwestern Morris County is another location rich in
relics. This site was discovered in the i86o s on the David Rude farm and
had furnished bushels of artifacts from the ancient flint workshop found
near the spring. A half-mile from the village in an open river bottom has
been found evidence of a battle between the villagers and an attacking
party. Numerous arrow and broken spear points of two distinct types were
scattered about. One type, also found in the town itself, was fashioned
from the ordinary blue flint common in that locality. The other type,
obviously used by the invaders, was much superior in quality and work
manship, being sharper, better pointed and made of varieties of agate, and
of gray, white, and red flint. Since none of these superior points have been
found in the town it is concluded that the invaders were defeated.
The floor of an Indian lodge and a prehistoric burial ground were
excavated in the summer and fall of 1936 in Saline County, about four
miles east of Salina. They are considered among the most important
archeological finds of recent years. The lodge floor, thirty by thirty-two
feet, was uncovered at a depth of eighteen inches. A central fireplace was
found filled with ashes, and the earth beneath was burned a deep red.
Post holes around the outer side of the floor and near the center indicate
that the lodge was constructed of upright and crossed poles, probably
chinked and roofed with clay and bluestem grass. The clay plainly showed
finger marks of the builders who evidently used their hands as trowels.
Five caches of different sizes and depths were sunk in the floor ; in two of
them were found clam shells, hoes, pipes, beads, pendants, and some
charred corn. Bone needles, awls, scrapers, and flint arrows were on the
24 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
floor. Two interesting pieces of clay modeling, a war club and a screech
owl, were also found. In the two weeks following this discovery, hun
dreds of people visited the site; it was then covered over, and the soil
sown to wheat.
Of even greater interest is the burial pit near the lodge floor, discovered
in October 1936 on the farm of George E. Kohr. Subsequent investiga
tions have proved it to be the largest Indian ossuary that has been un
earthed in this part of the United States. More than one hundred skeletons
of men, women and children lie buried four layers deep, in what careful
observation shows to be a definite arrangement. The first layer is close to
the surface; the lowest one is about forty inches below. Practically all of
the skeletons lie on their right sides in a flexed position, heads to the south
and facing east. Measurements indicate a race remarkable for size,
strength, and endurance many of the adult males being well over six feet
in height. These remains have been expertly exposed and left in the
places and positions of their burial. Near them have been found the
remains of ceremonial pots, necklaces of shell beads, flint knives, and
arrowheads. Several of the individual remains excite unusual interest and
speculation. One small skull evidently that of a child shows double
rows of teeth in each jaw. Near an adult male are the remains of two land
turtles. Another adult male is a pronounced hunchback, and he lies on his
left side with his head to the west. Almost without exception the skulls
are long with low foreheads, although there is one skeleton of small
stature with a round head and high forehead. The pit is now protected by
a small frame building, which contains Indian artifacts found on the spot
and in the vicinity.
An important relic of historic times is the ruin of an old pueblo twelve
miles north of Scott City in Scott County. This had been identified as the
long lost El Quartelejo, established about 1700, or perhaps earlier, by
Picurie Indians from New Mexico, who abandoned the settlement to
escape Spanish oppression. It was originally a stone and adobe building,
thirty-two by fifty feet, divided into seven rooms, and was probably the
first walled house ever constructed in Kansas. In it were found stone, flint,
and bone implements ; mealing stones, potsherds, charred corn, and other
relics characteristic of the Pueblo Indians.
<<<(<<<<<<<<<<<< -fr >>>)>)>>>>>>>>>>>>
lans
TWO groups of Indians have lived in Kansas, the native tribes-
found by the first white men who entered the Territory and the
emigrant tribes. The latter were from the East, settled on reservations in
Kansas by treaties with the Federal Government.
Wandering tribes like the Cheyenne and Arapahoe inhabited sections of
the Kansas region, but their culture is not as representative of Indian life
in the State as that of the Kansa (Kaw), Osage, and Pawnee. These tribes
lived in villages of large and semi-permanent earth lodges, and cultivated
maize, beans, and squash. There were significant differences in their social
organization, religious ideas, and mode of life, but the Kansa may be
taken as an example, since it is from them that the State derived its name.
The Kansa belonged to the Siouan linguistic group and were closely
related to the Osage. Their economy was based upon the cultivation of
crops and hunting of buffalo or other game. Agriculture was women s
work, while hunting was that of the men. Each lodge was a self-contained
economic unit providing all its own material needs.
The tribe was governed by five hereditary chiefs. Each office was con
trolled by a gens a group of kin related only through the male line. A
chief was generally succeeded by his eldest son, but it was possible for a
woman to hold office if no son were living. In recognition of an outstand
ing achievement, a man could be elected chief, and the new chieftainship
thus created became hereditary in his gens.
The Kansa lived in earth lodges in permanent villages, which they left
periodically on organized buffalo hunts. Because of its great economic
importance the buffalo hunt was carefully controlled and the hunters were
restricted in many ways. They were divided into three bands, each of
which lived as a unit for the duration of the hunt. An announcer informed
the village of the day of departure and, as soon as the place for the hunt
had been agreed upon, each band chose a prominent warrior as leader. He
paid for a feast and was thanked by the chiefs for his services. Then, for
police, twenty men were chosen from those who had proved their courage
in war by taking a scalp, or slaying an enemy, or in other ways. They
25
26 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
were in charge of the hunt, prevented any individual from attacking before
the signal was given, policed the camp, and punished offenders by whip
ping them. When the hunters returned to camp, the police shared the meat
as payment for their services.
The most sacred objects possessed by the tribe were the medicine
bundles, which contained many objects believed to be imbued with magical
powers. The bundles used in war were the most prominent because war
fare held the most important role in tribal life. Each gens had its war
bundle, and among its number were certain men privileged in its owner
ship and use. These privileges were obtained by acquiring the proper
vision through fasting and prayer. Once a man had been granted his
vision, he went to a former owner of the bundle and paid him for instruc
tion in its uses. Thereafter he was a potential war chief.
The custom of scalp taking, which was regarded by the whites as a
mere act of savagery, was practiced primarily as a memorial of victory and
was an outgrowth of the more ancient form of head hunting. But it also
had a ritualistic significance as the scalp-lock was held to be the seat of
life, or the spirit of the warrior. It was believed that the scalped victim,
being physically incomplete, could not enter the Happy Hunting Ground
and consequently could have no rest in the hereafter, but must continue as
a spirit-servant to the victor. Therefore, the more scalps a warrior took,
the better; he would have more spirit-assistants and fewer enemies when
he himself entered the future life.
Boys began about the age of twelve to fast in order to obtain dreams
and guardian spirits. A father painted his son s face with clay and sent
him to a lonely spot so that he might receive power to do a brave deed.
Warrior ancestors appeared to the boy and prophesied his future exploits,
and from them he generally acquired war powers. His dreams were pri
marily concerned with future acts of greatness in war, and were recited
whenever he joined a war party. Although this was the fundamental type
of vision, others were peopled with the spirits of bear, buffalo, or thunder,
one of which became his special protector throughout life. When the boy
returned he received a new name, usually based on his vision, and became
a member of the tribe.
The great interest of the Kansa and other tribes of the Plains area was
warfare, and only by his achievements in war could an individual attain
social position. The warrior s preeminence was shown upon every possible
social occasion. He was permitted to sit upon a stuffed hide pillow at a
feast, to ride ahead of the police to the buffalo herd, and hunt without
fear of punishment. He acted as an intermediary in marriage, took charge
INDIANS 27
of dances, and functioned in the naming ceremony. The greatest honor
that could be bestowed on a warrior was to have his breast tattooed; and
this was accorded only to those who had slain seven enemies and stolen
six of their horses.
When a marriage was being arranged, the boy s parents asked a tattooed
warrior to be the intermediary. With three other braves of his choosing,
he visited the girl s parents and made the proposal. If the parents con
sented to the marriage, all the warriors recited their exploits in war, and
recounted them again on the way back to the boy s lodge. (If they returned
in silence, the boy knew that his request had been refused.) At the lodge
they announced the result of their mission. Then the boy, if accepted,
formally presented a number of horses to the girl s father. On the date set
for the marriage the girl, dressed in her finest clothes, went to the groom s
lodge, taking many presents. Here the boy s parents dressed her again in
a costume they had provided, and seated her upon the ground inside the
lodge. Seated back-to-back, the boy and girl partook of a marriage feast.
Relatives and friends were then admitted to a general feast, presents were
delivered, and the ceremony was ended.
As a tribe, the Kansa were aloof and independent, having little friendly
intercourse with any of the neighboring tribes, except the Osage, with
whom they were closely related by linguistic ties and intermarriage. They
did not penetrate far into what is now Kansas. At the time of the coming
of the Spanish in the sixteenth century, they occupied narrow strips of
territory on both sides of the Missouri River, approximately from the
mouth of the Kansas to the Nebraska line. Two hundred years later they
were in virtually the same location. In 1724 de Bourgmont reported two
Kansa villages on the Missouri one a few leagues above the mouth of
the Kansas, the other at the mouth of Independence Creek in Doniphan
County. It is thought that the latter point was the limit of their ascent up
the Missouri, and that they were driven back from there by the Pawnee.
Lewis and Clark, in 1804, found no trace of the lower village and only
the remains of the upper ; the Kansa were at that time established on the
Kansas River, with one village in the vicinity of the present Topeka, the
other at the mouth of the Big Blue (see MANHATTAN). By 1806
the former village had been deserted, and all the Kansa were collected
at the Big Blue.
In 1815 they made their first treaty with the Government, one of peace
and good will and involving no land transaction. But at St. Louis on June 3,
1825, they relinquished claim to all land in Missouri, southeast Nebraska,
and northeast Kansas, accepting instead a reservation beginning twenty
28 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
leagues up the Kansas. By 1830 the settlement on the Big Blue had been
abandoned, and three villages established near Mission Creek in Shawnee
County. These villages were occupied until 1846, when, by a treaty signed
January 14, the reservation was diminished, and the Kansa were removed
to Council Grove. On October 5, 1859, another treaty reduced their lands
to a small tract nine miles wide and fourteen miles long, which was
appraised and sold for the benefit of the tribe, when the Kansa were
moved to a reservation in Oklahoma about 1873.
Never very numerous, they were reduced by smallpox and liquor intro
duced by traders. In 1835 they were estimated at 1,606 and in 1872 at
hardly more than 200. From a once proud tribe, they had degenerated to
a poverty-stricken handful. Yet from these people, through the Pappan
family at Topeka (see TOPEKA), was descended one of Kansas most
distinguished citizens Charles Curtis, late Vice President of the United
States.
The Osage, also of the Siouan family, resembled the Kansa in religious
observance, social organization, and tribal customs, as well as in physical
appearance. Both have been described as tall and well formed. George
Catlin, the painter, visited the western tribes about 1835, and reported
that the Osage were the tallest Indians in North America, being from six
to six and one-half feet tall and well proportioned. They called themselves
Wa-zhe-zhe, which became Osage when French traders attempted to ren
der the name in writing. They were divided into two bands, the Great and
the Little Osage, when first known to the whites, and were collected in
two villages on the Missouri River, each village having its own chief and
local government. Prior to 1796, the trade along the Missouri and all its
tributary branches had been competitive, and Pierre Chouteau enjoyed a
monopoly with the Osage. Superseded by Manuel Lisa, who obtained an
exclusive right to trade in this territory from the Governor of Louisiana,
Chouteau laid plans to regain the profitable Osage business. He induced
the young men from both divisions to bring their families and follow him
south to the Verdigris, and later to the Arkansas River, establishing vil
lages along the latter stream. This migrating band was known as the
Arkansas and comprised about one-half of the Osage Nation.
Meanwhile the Great and Little Osage had removed from the Missouri
to the Osage River. In 1806 the Pike expedition found them in an upper
and lower village on the Little Osage. Two years later the Government
erected Fort Osage (afterwards Fort Clark), at the site of Sibley, Missouri,
presumably for their protection against neighboring tribes, with whom
they were in constant warfare. Within a month, Chouteau appeared at the
HAlST * A l*ft <M THE FACE
HO& <s e o.
CHEYENNE CHIEFS IN CAPTIVITY, FORT DODGE (1878)
fort with a treaty, prepared without consultation, by which the Osage
were obliged to relinquish virtually all the land they had in Missouri ; and
in 1815 they moved into new villages on the Neosho. In 1820 the Great
Osage had one village on the Osage River and one on the Neosho, while
the Little Osage had three villages on the latter stream. All five villages
totaled about 2,600 inhabitants. From then until the close of the Civil
War the Osage lived mainly in Kansas, hunting about the Neosho, Osage,
and Arkansas rivers.
Partly agrarian, they planted their crops in April, gave them one culti
vation and left their villages in May for the summer hunt, from which
they did not return until August. Then they harvested the crops usually
from ten to twenty bags of corn and beans, and a quantity of dried pump
kin for each family and feasted. In September they started on the fall
hunt which lasted until Christmas.
On June 2, 1825, preceding the Kansa by one day, the Osage ceded all
land in the State south of that claimed by the Kansa to the United States,
which thus acquired undisputed title. In return the Osage accepted a
diminished reserve, beginning twenty-five miles west of the Missouri Line
30 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
and extending west fifty miles. This reservation was again reduced by a
treaty, signed at the Canville Trading Post in Neosho County on Septem
ber 29, 1865, which provided that the Osage lands should be sold for
their benefit if they agreed to move to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
They so decided and settled on land bought from the Cherokee in 1870.
The Caddoan family, represented in Kansas by the Pawnee and the
Wichita, is believed to have migrated from the southwest at a period so
remote that only confused accounts of the migration exist in the family
traditions. Unlike the Siouan, the Caddoan family did not come as a whole
but in tribal divisions extending over a long period ; the general direction
of the movement was north and east. Caddoan tribes were distributed in
a diagonal belt reaching from Louisiana to North Dakota, where the
northernmost division, the Ankara, settled along the banks of the Missouri.
Members of this division called themselves Chahiksichahiks, "men of
men." But to the whites they were known as the Pawnee (from the Cad
doan word, "pa-rik-i," meaning "horn"), because of their scalp-locks,
which were so plastered with grease and paint that they stood erect like
horns.
They were a powerful tribe, originally estimated at 25,000, divided into
four subtribes: the Grand Pawnee on the Platte River in Nebraska; the
Loup on the Loup branch of the Platte ; the Republican on the Republican
River ; and the Tapage, or Noisy Pawnee, on the Smoky Hill River. Each
village was ruled by a hereditary chief, whose power was more or less
absolute, depending on the personality of the individual ; and the villages
were held together in a confederacy composed of the reigning chiefs, with
a superior chief over all.
Their first contact with white men was in 1541, when the "Turk" led
Coronado into Kansas, although not all historians agree that Coronado
reached "Harahey," as he called the Pawnee country. It is said that he sent
for the Pawnee chief, Tatarrax, and that the chief came to Quivira with
200 warriors, "all naked, with bows, and some sort of things on their
heads." They were well-known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centu
ries to the French traders.
Their numbers were steadily decreased in battle, as they were in con
stant conflict with surrounding tribes, especially the Kansa and Osage,
whom they considered their hereditary enemies. However, as with all other
tribes, their most formidable enemies were drink and disease. An epidemic
of smallpox carried off nearly one-half the nation in 1831. Writing of
that calamity, their agent reported them "dying so fast . . . they had ceased
to bury their dead, and bodies were to be seen in every direction, lying in
INDIANS 31
the river, lodged on the sand bars, in the weeds around their villages, and
in their old corn caches."
In September 1825 they acknowledged the supremacy of the United
States and agreed to submit all grievances to the Government for adjust
ment. This agreement they faithfully kept, even when the offenses were
committed by white men. Their cessions of land were insignificant, as
much that was rightfully theirs by prior claim and occupancy was ceded
by the Kansa and Osage. In 1876 the Pawnee their numbers reduced to
2,500 relinquished what was left to them in Kansas by a final treaty and
moved to Oklahoma.
Of all the Indians of Kansas, the Pawnee have yielded the greatest bulk
of songs and folk tales to ethnologists. The beautiful ceremonial dance,
The Hako, formerly observed by the Algonquian, Caddoan, and Siouan
families, was faithfully preserved by the Pawnee and has been recorded by
Alice C. Fletcher in the Twenty-second Annual Report (1900-01) of the
Bureau of American Ethnology. This ceremony, observed in the spring at
the mating season, was a prayer for children that the tribe might increase
and be strong; and the people might have long life, enjoy plenty, and be
happy and at peace. It was distinguished by its dignity, rhythmic variety,
and symbolic concept.
Although the Wichita spoke a Caddoan language related to Pawnee,
little is known about them. Catlin could find no resemblance between the
two groups in language, physical feature, or custom. The Wichita he
described as dark-skinned, clumsy and ordinary, although excellent horse
men like the Comanche. Their dress, too, was similar to that of the
Comanche; and like them they wore their hair long, while the Pawnee
shaved and painted their heads.
The Wichita, it is surmised, originally accompanied the Pawnee to the
Platte and Republican Rivers, and later, because of some dissatisfaction,
retraced their steps to the Arkansas River where they lived for centuries.
Coronado found them there in 1541 and called their land Quivira; and
succeeding Spanish explorers visited them in the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries. When they left Quivira is not known. Probably
they were forced out by the southern advance of the Siouan family, and
settled along the Cimarron River and on south into Texas. They returned,
however, to the old Quivira region during the Civil War and established
a village on the site of the city of Wichita. Before the period of land
cession they again retreated south, leaving their land to more aggressive
tribes.
The Arapahoe and Cheyenne were of the Algonquian family, which
3 2
THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
ATTtCOTTMI
INDIANS
33
OLD TRAILS MAP OF KANSAS
34 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
originally occupied territory about the Red River in northern Minnesota.
At some time in their history they had formed an alliance, which has
continued to the present time. They were forced west by the northern
Siouan movements the Arapahoe going first into Wyoming; the Chey
enne moving at a later date into the Black Hills of South Dakota, and
settling about the Cheyenne River, where they were found in 1804 by the
Lewis and Clark expedition.
Divisions of each tribe drifted south and west, forming the Northern
and Southern Arapahoe, and the Northern and Southern Cheyenne. But
these divisions were only geographical, for they combined forces to carry
on warfare against all the neighboring tribes. In 1840 they made peace
with the Comanche, Kiowa, and Sioux, but continued hostilities against
the Pawnee, Ute, and Shoshoni until all were confined on reservations.
According to their traditions, they were once a sedentary people, living
in fixed villages, cultivating the soil, and practicing the arts of pottery
and weaving. On the Plains they developed into nomadic hunters, living
in portable skin tents (tipis) and ranging from the Black Hills to the
Arkansas River and into the Rocky Mountains. They were fierce and dar
ing horsemen and the most dreaded foes of the early Mexican traders and
California gold-seekers. Although they had many similarities to the Kansa,
Osage, and Pawnee, they fit the popular conception of the Plains Indians
more exactly.
By a treaty at Fort Laramie, in 1851, the boundaries of the southern
divisions were fixed, giving them a large tract in western Kansas and
eastern Colorado, which the Government promised to protect. However,
the discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 brought such hordes of white
men into the territory that the Indians were forced out of the mountains
onto the plains about the Arkansas and Red Rivers. Angered by this breach
of faith, and aided by the Sioux in the north and the Kiowa in the south,
they began a series of uprisings that lasted until 1878. They figured in
the Chivington massacre in Colorado and that of Custer in Wyoming. On
February 18, 1861, they ceded all their lands in Kansas, except a small
tract lying between the Arkansas and Purgatory Rivers, but continued
depredations over all their former territory. The treaty of October 28,
1867, gave them a reservation in Oklahoma, but they refused to accept it
until forced to do so by the final treaties of 1874-1875. In 1876 the
northern divisions were settled in Wyoming and Montana.
The Arapahoe and Cheyenne participated in the Sun Dance, the annual
rite of worship performed by nearly all the Plains tribes and especially by
the Siouan, who accompanied it with sacrifices. The Arapahoe were leaders
INDIANS 35
in the Ghost Dance movement, originated about 1888 by Wovoka, a
member of the Paviotso tribe in western Nevada. This dance was the
ceremonial expression of the "Messiah" religion in which the Indians,
realizing the futility of further resistance and resigning themselves to the
fate of the conquered, took refuge. It was a mixture of Christianity and
Indian mythology, based on the belief that God had sent white people to
punish the Indians for their sins. When these sins were fully expiated, it
was believed, God would return to destroy the whites and reunite in
heaven all Indians, living and dead. To hasten His return, the elaborate
ceremony of the Dance, lasting four to five nights, was observed once in
every six weeks.
Contrary to popular belief, the Ghost Dance religion did not advocate
war on the whites, although it did give indirect impetus to the Sioux out
break in the spring of 1891. The fundamental teachings of the "Messiah"
were "not to tell lies, to harm no one, to do right always, and not to cry
when their friends died." It was the most pacific religion ever adopted by
an Indian people.
Hopefully the elated converts looked forward to the dates set for the
return of their God and the destruction of the whites; when these dates
passed without fulfillment of the prophecy, the Indians lost faith and the
Ghost Dance faded out.
The Kiowa have the distinction of being the sole representative of their
linguistic family. The word, Kiowa, comes from their "Kiowagan," mean
ing "prominent people." They were a true Plains tribe, having come
originally from the upper Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. Forced out by
the Sioux, they drifted south along the base of the Rockies to settle along
the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers.
Shortly thereafter they formed an alliance with the Crow, and in 1840
they made a similar agreement with the Arapahoe and Cheyenne, with
whom they were associated in border uprisings. They were war-like and
predatory and are credited with having killed more white men in propor
tion to their numbers than any other tribe. They made their first treaty
with the United States in 1837 and removed to their present reservation
in 1868, although, together with their confederates, they continued depre
dations until the last outbreak in 1878.
The Comanche, of the Shoshonean family, also ranged across sections
of western Kansas. They fought intermittently with the Spanish for 200
years and for nearly half a century with the Texans, who, they felt, had
taken their best hunting grounds. They were close confederates of the
Kiowa and joined them in all border warfare.
36 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
On October 18, 1865, together with the Kiowa, they ceded all land to
the Government, that in Kansas being west of the Osage and south of the
Arkansas River. By the 1867 treaty at Medicine Lodge they were given a
reservation in Oklahoma; but, like the Kiowa, they refused to accept it
until general peace was effected. Although covering a great deal of terri
tory, the Comanche were never as numerous as they seemed. In 1904,
wasted by war and disease, they numbered only 1,400.
The movement of emigrant tribes into Kansas began with the Shawnee
in 1825 and ended with the Wyandot in 1842. At the insistence of the
Government these tribes, twenty-eight in number, gave up their ancient
lands east of the Mississippi, or land they had acquired by settlement west
of the Mississippi, and were given in return small reservations in eastern
Kansas, mainly in that portion ceded by the Kansa and Osage. The major
ity of the emigrant tribes had lived in long association with missionaries
and white settlements. They had intermarried with the whites and their
leaders were often white men adopted into the tribe, or descendants of
mixed blood. Under these combined influences, they had adopted many
of the ways of the whites and, to some degree, arrived at their way of
thinking.
This was particularly true of the Delaware, Shawnee, and Wyandot.
The first printing press in Kansas was brought to the Shawnee ; and on it
was printed the second newspaper ever published in an Indian language.
The code of laws adopted by the Delaware would have compared favor
ably with that of any group of white people in similar circumstances. The
Wyandot more than three- fourths white, generally educated and in some
instances highly cultured established the first free school in Kansas and
played a significant part in the State s territorial history.
But these tribes, brought into the lusty crudeness of a border country
and repeatedly deceived by meaningless promises of the Government,
deserted the teachings of missionaries and adopted the worst habits of
their conquerors. Drink, supplied by the ubiquitous trader, became a gen
eral habit. The Delaware, enticed to the Plains by the buffalo, became
embroiled with the Pawnee and burned the Pawnee village on the Repub
lican River in 1832. The Potawatomi also fought with the Pawnee until
the latter were defeated.
Eventually these emigrant groups shared the fate of the native families.
In 1854, when Kansas was opened to white settlers, a period of land
cession was inaugurated and continued until about 1880. At its close virtu
ally all Indian titles had been extinguished. Of the thirty-six tribes, rem
nants of only six, distributed on small reservations, are now to be found
POTTAWATOMIE AND KICKAPOO HOLY MEN, RESERVATION NEAR HORTON
in Kansas. These are the Chippewa and Munsee in Franklin County; Iowa
in Doniphan ; Potawatomi in Jackson ; and the Sauk and Fox and Kickapoo
in Brown County. In 1930 their combined numbers totaled 2,454.
Indian farmers in Kansas today live in much the same manner as their
white neighbors. Though there are a few impressive buildings, their
houses are usually small; many have telephones and other modern con
veniences. It might appear that these people have completely lost their
racial heritage, but this is not so. During the summer months, especially,
they return to their tribal costumes, not only for festivities but for every
day wear; and few Indians fail to attend the religious dances and games
held on Kansas reservations at customary intervals during the year.
In this way they manage to preserve much of their native culture. The
Prairie Potawatomi, more than any of the other Kansan Indians, still
adhere to their tribal customs and conduct traditional ceremonies on their
reservation. The Religious Dance is the most important of these. It repre
sents the fusion of Indian and Christian religious concepts and is held at
38 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
least five times a year, out-of-doors in spring and summer, and indoors
during the winter months. It is conducted by an organization of men and
women which functions like a priesthood. Vigorous singing and drum
ming are sustained for most of the day and night for a period varying
from one to eight days, depending on the amount of food available. The
entire tribe attends, but only the men dance. Peyote meetings, so named
from the stimulant drug, are also held each year for several successive
nights and days, for the formal purpose of worship and general thanks
giving. Men and women attend; all eat or drink some peyote and con
tribute food. Other rituals include the Dance Ceremony for the deceased,
the Adoption Ceremony, and the Clan (or Gens) Ceremony.
Games are also played lacrosse, for men only; woman s ball game, or
squaw hockey, for women only; and moccasin game for both men and
women. Indian dice, archery and blow-gun games are sometimes played
with a neighboring tribe, like the Kickapoo. The promotion of friend
ship, rather than rivalry, is the objective in these games, for the Indian
believes that "All games are gifts from the Good Spirit for the enjoyment
of life."
<<<<<<<<<<<< <-<"&->-> >->>->-
History
PRIOR to the coming of the Spanish in 1541, the Kansas country was
known only to the Indians nomadic bands of hunters and warriors,
and the indigenous tribes. Of the latter, Coronado mentions three, the
Wichita, Kansa, and Pawnee, and vaguely infers that there may have been
more.
For a decade, the "seven cities of Cibola" had been in the minds of
Spanish conquistadores ; to find and plunder these supposed centers of
wealth had been the cherished hope of many adventurers. But only Fran
cisco Vasquez de Coronado, Governor of New Galicia in New Spain,
Mexico, comes into the Quivira quest, which grew out of the disappointing
Cibola experience and is the colorful prelude to Kansas history.
In 1539 Friar Marcos de Nica, whom Coronado had sent on a prelimi
nary search for the Cibola cities, returned with the good news that he had
espied one of these wonderful places of "high houses," though only from
a safe distance. An expedition was organized, and 300 Spanish "men of
quality" gathered at the rendezvous, Compostela (on the Pacific coast be
low lower California), by Shrovetide of 1540. With Coronado as captain-
general, the army started northward, crossed the mountains, and spent the
whole of that year in futile marches through what are now Arizona and
New Mexico. Winter overtook them at Tiguex (near Bernalillo, New
Mexico). By this time they had found that the cities of Cibola were
merely poor pueblo structures ; but one of Coronado s captains, Hernando
de Alvarado, while on a minor search, had been told by "an Indian slave"
whom he called The Turk," that far beyond "toward Florida" lay the
slave s own land, Quivira, which was rich in gold and silver. He could
guide the white strangers to it.
In the spring of 1541 (April 23) Coronado and his army left Tiguex,
hoping to find in Quivira the precious metals Cibola could not supply.
The Turk led them through "the cow country" into western Texas so far
southeastward that at a village on the Colorado River the captain-general
called a halt. Their supplies had fallen dangerously low. For 37 days they
had followed the Turk and, to conserve their grain supplies, had lived
39
4 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
mainly on buffalo meat. Tiguex was "250 leagues" away, and the unknown
country beyond might prove barren. Coronado divided his force. Taking
with him only "thirty horsemen and six footmen," he headed north to
pursue the quest, sending the remainder of his men back to Tiguex to
await his return.
With Coronado went the Turk and another guide. Across the panhan
dles of Texas and Oklahoma Coronado proceeded "until he reached Qui-
vira." His report, October 20, 1541, to his king, reads: "I traveled for
forty-two days after I left the force, living all the while solely on the flesh
of the bulls and cows which we killed . . . and going many days without
water and cooking the food with cow dung, because there is no other kind
of wood in all these plains, away from the gullies and rivers, which are
few." The chronicler Suceso placed Quivira as "in the fortieth degree,"
but another authority, mapping the "Province of Quivira," puts it in the
thirty-ninth, between the Arkansas River at Great Bend and the conflu
ence of the Republican and Kansas Rivers, at Junction City.
It was near this place that the Turk was strangled for his treachery, after
Coronado had heard that he had tried to incite the Quivira people (Wich
ita tribe) to kill them. The Turk might have been killed anyway, for by
this time one fact was obvious to the angry captain-general: Quivira con
tained no gold or silver. "These provinces . . ." Coronado wrote, "are a
very small affair . . . there is not any gold, nor any metal at all in that
country." But he found some satisfaction "on seeing the good appearance
of the earth. . . . The province of Quivira . . . 950 leagues from Mexico,"
he conceded, "is the best I have seen for producing all the products of
Spain, for besides the land itself being very fat and black, and being well
watered by the rivulets and springs and rivers, I found prunes like those
of Spain, and nuts and very sweet grapes and mulberries."
After a stay of 25 days in Quivira, Coronado and his men returned to
Tiguex, but by a shorter southwestward route, approximating what later
became the Santa Fe Trail. In the summer of 1542, "with less than a
hundred men," he reached Mexico City, where he was shorn of his rank
and soon died. But the seemingly fruitless journey introduced the horse
to the Plains and, by right of discovery, established Spanish claim in the
entire western region.
A Franciscan monk, Juan de Padilla, who had been with Coronado in
Quivira, returned to that country in 1542, but was killed by the Indians.
For a half century Spanish interest in the far north remained inactive.
Then, in 1594, Francisco Levya de Bonilla and Antonio Gutierrez de
Humana ventured beyond the Arkansas, traveling northward for twelve
HISTORY 41
days and reaching another river. On their way back they were overtaken
and murdered. Don Juan de Ofiate, in 1601, was the next Spaniard to
traverse Quivira. It is probable that more than a century passed before
another Spanish party came so far north.
In the late decades of the seventeenth century, however, the French
from Canada began to show active interest in the land west of the Mis
sissippi. In 1673 Louis Jollier, a trader, accompanied by Father Jacques
Marquette, descended the Mississippi River from the mouth of the Wis
consin River to below the mouth of the Arkansas; on the return trip they
left the Mississippi at the Illinois. So it hardly seems likely that, as some
suppose, Jolliet and Marquette ever reached the Kansas region. Neither
did La Salle who, in 1682, descended the Mississippi from the Illinois to
its mouth, returning along the same rivers. But there is a Marquette map
upon which some Kansas authorities seem to recognize certain topographi
cal features descriptive of Kansas. It was probably drawn from informa
tion gained by interrogating Indians with whom the priest came in
contact. Marquette in this way learned much about native peoples he never
visited. On his map of the Missouri and Kansas region, he marked the
names Ouemessourit (Missouri), Kanza (Kaw), Ouchage (Osage),
Paneassa (Pawnee), and some others.
In 1694 "Canadian traders were among the Osage and Missouri tribes,"
and during the next few years the Spanish authorities in New Mexico had
several indications that the French traders were on good terms with the
Pawnee. By 1706, when Juan de Ulibarri headed a Spanish expedition out
of Santa Fe, it was apparent that the French, operating from the north,
were becoming rivals of the Spanish of New Mexico for the trade of the
interior.
Between 1706 and 1719 the French penetration was steady. In 1708
Canadians explored "three hundred to four hundred leagues" of the Mis
souri River; and during the next decade the French from the Louisiana
capital reached out along other tributaries of the Mississippi. In 1719
Charles Claude du Tisne, sent up the Missouri River by the Governor of
Louisiana, visited the Osage villages, near the mouth of the Osage River,
and crossed the northeast corner of Kansas to the Pawnee region on the
Republican P.iver. The Spanish heard that "he planted the French flag in
native villages and even traded in Spanish horses." Don Pedro de Villa-
2ur, assigned "to drive the French out of the land," left Santa Fe in 1720
with a Spanish force of 42 soldiers, 3 settlers, 60 Indians, and a priest.
The route was "always to the northeast from Santa Fe." Possibly the
caravan passed through part of Kansas, but the account mentions only
42 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
three rivers, the Napestle (Arkansas), the Jesus Maria (south fork of the
Platte), and the San Lorenzo (north fork of the Platte). Villazur and
most of the Spaniards were killed in a battle, thought to have been fought
near the town of North Platte, Nebraska. This defeat ended Spanish
operations and left the French in undisputed possession.
The French established themselves more securely in the region in 1722,
when Etienne Venyard, Sieur de Bourgmont, erected Fort Orleans near
the mouth of the Osage River. Two years later Bourgmont worked among
Kansas Indians and penetrated even to the Rocky Mountains. He seemed
to have established trading relations with many tribes, but Kansa war
riors destroyed Fort Orleans in 1725.
In 1763 French authority, in all America, came to an end. England,
victorious in the long French and Indian War, received the Canadian
provinces and all French rights to land east of the Mississippi. New
Orleans and Louisiana, west of the Mississippi, had already (1762) been
ceded by France to Spain.
Spain showed little interest in the Quivira country thus regained, yet
the development of Kansas began under its ownership. Pierre Laclede
Luguest, with Auguste and Pierre Chouteau of the French fur trading
family, established headquarters at St. Louis in 1764, and sent agents from
there to the Indians of Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Kansas. These
agents, although few in number, cleared the paths by which Kansas was
to emerge from a little-known region into a definite territory.
In 1 80 1, by the Treaty of Madrid, which confirmed the 1800 Treaty
of San Ildefonso, Louisiana west of the Mississippi was retroceded to
France, which by then had renewed its ambitions for a colonial empire
and thereby alarmed the recently formed United States. France, under
Napoleon, was at the height of its power too dominant a neighbor to
be viewed placidly. Recognition of this and other considerations led
President Thomas Jefferson to propose the purchase by the United States
of west Florida and New Orleans. Napoleon s counter proposal, offering
the whole of Louisiana, was accepted. On April 30, 1803, Louisiana,
including the Kansas region, became the property of the United States.
Explorations sponsored by the United States began immediately. In
January 1803, before the Louisiana Purchase was consummated, President
Jefferson called the attention of Congress to the land west of the Missis
sippi, pointing out the possibilities of trade and suggesting an appropria
tion of $2,500 for the purpose of exploring the country and furthering
commerce. The appropriation was made, and an exploring party organized
HISTORY 43
under command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William
Clark.
In March 1804 the Territory was divided into two parts. Land south of
the thirty-third parallel was named the Territory of Orleans; that north
of the parallel, including Kansas, became the District of Louisiana,
attached for legal purposes to the Territory of Indiana.
On June 26, 1804, Lewis and Clark landed at the mouth of the Kansas
River on the first lap of their expedition. By July 4 they had reached a
stream in the present Doniphan County, which they named "Independence
Creek" in honor of the day, firing an evening gun and rationing out an
additional gill of whiskey by way of celebration. Two years later, August
5, 1806, they returned to the mouth of the Kansas with the first reliable
information on the climate, topography, and general features of the
western country.
Before the conclusion of the first expedition, a second was organized by
the military commandant of Louisiana, General James Wilkinson, and set
out from St. Louis June 24, 1806, under command of Captain Zebulon
M. Pike. He visited the Osage in Missouri and the Pawnee on the Repub
lican, arriving among the latter on September 25. Here he found a Spanish
flag floating over their council tent. The purchase from Napoleon had no
fixed western boundary; the United States claimed territory extending to
the Rocky Mountains while Spain fixed the line much farther east. Pike
demanded that the Spanish flag be hauled down and the American stand
ard be raised in its place, thus putting an end to all Spanish claim east
of the Rockies. He turned south to the Arkansas River and followed it to
the present site of Pueblo, Colorado, discovering the mountain now known
as Pike s Peak. As this was encroaching on Spanish territory, he was cap
tured and taken to Mexico. During his captivity of some months, Pike
gathered considerable information as to the possibilities of trade with the
Mexican provinces. The accounts of his travels, published in 1810 on his
return to the States, directed an avid interest to these provinces.
Of parts of Kansas he wrote enthusiastically but he saw no possibilities
for white settlement in the arid portions of the Louisiana district. "These
vast plains of the western hemisphere," his account reads, "may become in
time as celebrated as the sandy deserts of Africa; for I saw in my route,
in various places, tracts of many leagues where the wind had thrown up
the sand in all the fanciful forms of the ocean s rolling wave, on which
not a speck of vegetable matter existed."
Maps, presumably based on Pike s report and showing the desert reach
ing from the west line of Missouri and Arkansas to the Rocky Mountains,
44 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
from the Platte to the Red River, were incorporated into the school
geographies of that period. This misconception gave rise to the legend of
a * great American Desert" that included the whole of Kansas.
Meanwhile, March 3, 1805, the District of Louisiana was erected into
the Territory of Louisiana, independent of the Territory of Indiana and
with its own powers of legislation.
Twelve years elapsed before another expedition was attempted, and
during that time a series of events occurred that influenced the future of
Kansas. In 1807 Manuel Lisa, a Spanish fur trader, established a number
of trading stations about the headwaters of the Missouri River. The Mis
souri Fur Company was organized the following year by Lisa, together
with Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, and a chain of trading posts was
established throughout the western country. This company was dissolved
in 1812 and was succeeded by the American Fur Company of the Chou-
teaus, who were beginning to concentrate their activities in Kansas.
On June 4, 1812, the Territory of Missouri, with its western boundary
approximating that of the present State of Missouri, was created from the
Territory of Louisiana, leaving the remainder without law or official
identification for a quarter of a century.
The expedition of Major Stephen H. Long a scientific exploration
sent out by the Government ascended the Missouri to the present town
of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1819. Long camped there for the winter, then
moved south to the Platte and Red Rivers, entered Colorado, where
members of his party made the first ascent of Pike s Peak, and returned to
the Mississippi via the Red River. His expedition, following in the path
of Pike, accumulated scientific data, and introduced the first steamboat to
Kansas waters. The Western Engineer entered thr mouth of the Kansas
on August 10, 1819, and transported his party up the course for one
mile. Here the mud left by flood-waters made it necessary to turn back
and continue up the Missouri.
A period of still deeper significance for the future of Kansas followed.
In 1818 the Missouri Territory asked admission to the Union as a slave
State; simultaneously, Alabama, also a slave State, asked admission.
Alabama was admitted in 1819, balancing the power of the opposing fac
tions, ii free and n slave States. The debates over Missouri resulted in
the Missouri Compromise, passed February 17, 1820, providing that
Missouri should be admitted as a slave State, but that all future States
west of the Mississippi and north of 36 and 30 should be free. On
August 10, 1821, Missouri was admitted under the terms of the compro
mise and the question of slavery shifted to the territory west of the
HISTORY 45
Mississippi, where it was to flare anew in Kansas. Two years later the
boundary between Missouri and Kansas was definitely fixed.
Thomas Hart Benton, Senator from Missouri, began in Congress his
championship of western development in 1824, only to meet with opposi
tion such as the following from Daniel Webster: "What do we want with
this vast and worthless area, of this region of savages and wild beasts, of
deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds, of dust, of cactus and prairie
dogs; to what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or those
endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with
eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a
coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless, uninviting and not a harbor
in it ? Mr. President, I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to
place the Pacific Coast one inch nearer Boston than it is now."
The Reverend Isaac McCoy, a missionary to the Indians east of the
Mississippi, journeyed to Washington to propose the removal of his
charges to western reservations beyond the influence of white settlements.
His proposal was favorably received and, in the main, Kansas was selected
to provide the reservations, for it was still thought of as desert country
and of no value.
In 1825 the Government arranged treaties with the Osage and Kansa,
whereby they gave up their lands in eastern Kansas to make way for the
emigrant tribes. The first allotment was granted to the Shawnees; then in
rapid succession came the Delaware in 1829; the Kickapoo, Potawatomi,
Kaskaskia, Peoria, Wea, and Piankeshaw in 1832; the Sauk and Fox and
the Iowa in 1836; the Miami in 1840; and the Wyandot in 1843. All
were crowded onto small reservations in the eastern part of the State.
With them came the missionaries, who had already taught them the
rudiments of civilization. Two Presbyterian missions had been established
in 1820 for the Osage, the Union on the Neosho River and the Harmony
on the Marais des Cygnes. In the spring of 1827 Daniel Morgan Boone,
son of Daniel Boone, was sent by the Government to teach farming to the
Kansas Indians occupying the southern part of Jefferson County. There he
established his family, the first white family in the Territory; his son,
Napoleon, born August 22, 1828, was the first white child to be born
within the State. In 1829 the Reverend Thomas Johnson introduced Meth
odism to the Shawnee, establishing a mission near the present town of
Turner in Wyandotte County. Four years later the Reverend Jotham
Meeker brought the first printing press to the Shawnee Baptist Mission,
and on February 24, 1835, he published the first issue of the Shawnee
Sun, the first newspaper in Kansas.
46 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
By 1830 trading posts were scattered throughout eastern and central
Kansas, reaching from the Platte to the Red River. Within a few years,
ferries were strung across the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, roads were cut
along the ridges, patches of farm land were cleared and planted, and cabin
homes fringed the highways. All this was the work of the Indians, under
direction of missionaries and Government agents.
Captain William Becknell had made the first successful trade journey
to Santa Fe in 1821, establishing the route of the Santa Fe Trail. Twelve
months later he led the first wagon train along the trail, beginning the
valuable commerce of frontier days. As a midway course between Benton s
proposals for western development and the opposing view, Congress
authorized the survey and marking of the Santa Fe Trail in 1825. Fort
Leavenworth was established as "Cantonment Leavenworth" in May, 1827.
Westport (now Kansas City, Missouri) became a depot on the Santa Fe
Trail in 1833, and ten years later the city of Wyandot (Kansas City,
Kansas) was begun by the Wyandot Indians.
At this time the Government decided to send out another exploration
under Lieutenant John C. Fremont. He entered Kansas in 1842, complet
ing his outfit at the trading post of Cyprian Chouteau in Wyandotte
County on June 10. With Kit Carson as a guide, Fremont proceeded to
explore the Kansas and Platte Rivers, and to survey the South Pass of the
Oregon Trail, thereby winning the title of "Pathfinder." He followed this
exploration with three more, in 1843, 1845, and 1848. Accounts of these
expeditions were published immediately by the Government to direct
attention to the West, and in this they were highly successful.
The war between the United States and Mexico ended with the Treaty
of Guadelupe-Hidalgo, ratified May 30, 1848. By its terms, the Rio
Grande became the boundary between Texas and Mexico, and the interna
tional boundary westward, from El Paso to the Pacific, was established
almost as it is now. Northward, the ceded territory reached from a league
below San Diego, California, to the Oregon country at 42 north lati
tude; eastward it reached to the Rocky Mountains. This vast region
embraced what was then known as New Mexico and Upper California,
and what now corresponds to a strip of Texas ; the greater parts of New
Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona ; all of California, Nevada and Utah ; and
a little of Wyoming. In addition, the treaty of 1846 with Great Britain
had established the right of the United States to the Oregon country. Thus
in two years the United States cleared from its continental path to the
Pacific all conflicting sovereignties as far north as the forty-ninth parallel.
This resulted in a tremendous increase in migration over Kansas trails.
HISTORY 47
The volume had been swelling since 1843, when the "Great Emigration"
to the Oregon country began. Then 900 people in in wagons, and 2,000
horses and cattle, had set out from Elm Grove, Kansas. In 1844 four
parties, one of 800 and another of 500 to 700 people, had started west
ward; and 5,000 had left the Missouri border in 1845. The Mormon trek
from Nauvoo, Illinois, "to the western wilderness" started in 1846, and
by 1848 most of them had safely reached their new homes in the Salt Lake
region. These migrations, however, seem small when compared with that
of 1849, when the California gold rush brought 90,000 people through
Kansas. Although all these emigrants merely swept through the Kansas
country with their eyes fixed on the west, they indirectly affected the
region. Civilization was now both west and east of Kansas. In 1850 came
the overland stagecoach to Utah and the Pacific coast. The myth of the
"Great American Desert" was finally dispelled, and Kansas emerged from
obscurity.
The first move to organize Kansas into a Territory, made in 1844, was
of small consequence, as were all subsequent movements until 1852. In
the spring of that year a half-dozen Missourians met at Uniontown,
Kansas, framed a set of resolutions, which they presented to the Thirty-
second Congress, petitioning that the Platte country, comprising the pres
ent States of Kansas and Nebraska, be erected into a territory and styled
the Nebraska Territory. The bill was not passed.
The next step was taken by the Wyandot Indians. On July 28, 1853,
they met in the council house in Wyandot, organized Kansas-Nebraska
into a Provisional Territory and elected a delegate to the Thirty-third
Congress. This act was not recognized, nor was the delegate admitted to
Congress, but their action precipitated the long debate that resulted in the
passage of the Douglas Bill, signed by President Franklin Pierce on May
30, 1854. By this bill the Missouri Compromise was repealed and the
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska were organized with the right to
determine the question of slavery for themselves.
In creating the two Territories it was tacitly hoped that Kansas would
resolve itself into a slave State and that Nebraska would remain free, thus
preserving the balance of power between the free and slave factions. This
hope was immediately threatened by a movement in the New England
States, begun by Eli Thayer of Massachusetts with the organization of the
New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1854. The movement proposed
to send 20,000 Free Soilers into Kansas each year, but failed to attract
emigrants in any such numbers. Still its existence aroused the pro-slavery
advocates, who retaliated with counter organizations known as the "Blue
48 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
Lodge/ "Sons of the South," and others. Both movements proposed a
Squatter Sovereignty."
The Kansas Territory at that time had no more than 1,500 white per
sons, approximately 700 of whom were in military service and therefore
ineligible for the ballot; the others lived in small groups clustered about
the trading posts and Indian missions, and along the Oregon and Santa
Fe Trails. But across the State line in the western counties of Missouri,
were 80,000 citizens who owned approximately 12,000 slaves. It was to
their interest to control the policies of the future State, and their resent
ment of anti-slavery activities was particularly intense. Many immediately
crossed the Kansas line to "spot" claims, pending further action by the
Government.
In May 1854 treaties were made with the Delaware and Shawnee in
eastern Kansas, by which more than two million acres of their reserva
tions were made available to the whites by public auction and preemption.
The race for Kansas was on. Settlers poured into the new Territory from
Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and especially
from Missouri. They came in caravans of prairie schooners or Conestoga
wagons, by steamboats, on horseback, on foot in companies and alone.
The majority brought their families, their cattle and farm implements,
their spinning wheels and looms.
The Territory was then without law. To provide for order until a gov
ernment could be set up, an association was formed and resolutions were
drawn up outlining the rights of the settlers and preparing for the peace
ful building of a State.
Towns were established. Leavenworth, adjacent to Fort Leavenworth,
was laid out in June 1854. A month later Lawrence was founded by
Charles H. Branscomb and Dr. Charles Robinson, agents of the New
England Emigrant Aid Company, as a Free State headquarters ; and Atchi-
son was established as a rival pro-slavery town. Topeka was platted on
December 5 by Cyrus K. Holliday, who designed it for the capital which
it later became. Before the year was out Palmyra, Louisiana, and Brooklyn
were begun along the Santa Fe Trail, with Prairie City, Baldwin City, and
Hickory Point in its close vicinity; on the Oregon Trail (locally known
as the California Road) Franklin and Wakarusa appeared.
The first Territorial newspaper, the Kansas Weekly Herald, which
began publication in Leavenworth, September 15, 1854, supported slav
ery; and the Kansas Tribune, a Free State paper, issued its first number
on January 3, 1855, at Lawrence.
The people who ventured into Kansas in the hope of finding peace and
HISTORY 49
well-ordered living were fated to deep and persisting disappointment. It
was hardly surprising that the Territory attracted a full complement of
desperadoes. But few settlers could have predicted the "bleeding Kansas"
of the 1850 $ and i86o s, with border warfare and violent antagonism
among its citizens, most of whom were aggressively committed to one side
or the other of the slavery issue.
Andrew H. Reeder of Pennsylvania was named the first Territorial
Governor on June 29, 1854, and was inaugurated at Fort Leavenworth on
October 7. Under his administration the pro-slavery party, aided by sym
pathizers from Missouri, gained the ascendancy. At the election of a
delegate to Congress on November 29, 1854, Missouri voters dominated
the polls; and, at the election of the Territorial legislature on March 30,
1855, abuses were even more flagrant. Four to five thousand armed men
from Missouri, inflamed by the speeches of the Southern agitators, Senator
David R. Atchison and General B. F. Stringfellow, appeared at the voting
places, where they browbeat judges, stuffed ballot boxes, and otherwise
transformed the election into a grim farce. Many of the members elected
were residents of Missouri, yet Governor Reeder, under threat of his life,
was obliged to issue election certificates. Because of the illegality of the
election, the body was dubbed the "bogus legislature," by which term it
has since been known.
Shortly before the election, Reeder, finding accommodations at Fort
Leavenworth inadequate, removed the temporary seat of government to
the Shawnee Mission in Johnson County. But partly to further his own
land speculations, he convoked the first legislature at Pawnee on July 2,
1855. There the body proceeded to take matters into its own hands. It
ousted its few Free State members, and voted, over the Governor s veto, to
adjourn to the Shawnee Mission, which it did on July 16. There Reeder
refused to recognize its acts, contending that the mission was not the
authorized seat of government. The body answered with an appeal to
President Pierce, who responded by removing Reeder from office on
July 29.
With Daniel Woodson as Acting Governor, the legislature proceeded
to adopt the Missouri statutes virtually in toto, merely instructing the clerk
to strike out "Missouri" and insert the name of the Territory. Only on
the subject of slavery did it show originality. Its enactments on this issue,
known as the "Black Laws," provided a death penalty for anyone who, by
word or deed, should aid in freeing a slave, and a penitentiary sentence
for holding an opinion adverse to slavery. Reaction to these measures was
widespread, with newspapers of the North and even some of the South
50 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
protesting. The pro-slavery party prepared to enforce them through the
Law and Order Society, which was organized on October 3, 1855, at a
meeting in Leavenworth.
Meanwhile Free State advocates countered with a government of their
own. In an assembly at Big Springs on September 5, 1855, the acts of the
"bogus legislature" were repudiated, the Free State party was formally
organized under the leadership of James H. Lane, and delegates were
appointed to a constitutional convention which assembled at Topeka on
October 23. Here a constitution was drafted and State officers were nomi
nated; at a general election, held December 15, the constitution was rati
fied, Dr. Charles Robinson was elected Governor, and Lane and Reeder
were sent to the United States Senate. They were not seated, the United
States Senate refusing to recognize the election.
Nor was this the only move of the Free State party. In April 1855
Dr. Robinson, as agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, sent
an order to Eli Thayer for 100 Sharp s rifles, which were promptly dis
patched and became known as "Beecher s Bibles/ These were followed in
July by a second shipment which included a small brass cannon. The rifles
had a somewhat quieting effect, but it was the quiet before the storm.
Through the summer and fall of 1855 animosity smoldered, awaiting only
an excuse for an open break. On November 21 Charles W. Dow, a Free
.State man, was shot and killed by Franklin M. Coleman, a pro-slavery
man, in a quarrel over claim boundaries. Coleman surrendered to the
sheriff of Douglas County and was released on bond; Dow s friends organ
ized a posse to bring the murderer to justice. A member of this posse was
arrested by the sheriff on a trumped-up charge and was promptly rescued
by his friends. These events culminated in the threatened invasion of
Lawrence, known as the "Wakarusa War." Border ruffians from Missouri
gathered on Wakarusa Creek for the purpose of sacking the town and
were deterred only by the intervention of Governor Wilson Shannon and
United States troops from Fort Leavenworth. But before order was estab
lished a second Free State man, Thomas Barber, had been murdered.
Displeased with Governor Shannon s interference and bent on the
destruction of Lawrence, the pro-slavery party bided its time until the
following May, when a second invasion resulted in a partial destruction
of the town. Three days later, May 24, John Brown retaliated with the
execution of five pro-slavery men in the Potawatomi Massacre. Brown s
action, the first retaliatory move on the part of the Free Staters, unleashed
the extremists of both sides. Captain Henry C. Pate, Deputy United States
Marshal, under pretext of arresting Brown, instigated fighting on the
PORTRAIT OF JOHN BROWN
52 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
south side of the Kansas River, resulting in the battles of Black Jack,
Franklin, and Fort Titus, the raiding of Palmyra and Prairie City, and the
sacking of Osawatomie. On the north side of the river, at the towns of
Atchison, Doniphan, and Leavenworth, Free State families were ejected
from their homes and driven out of the Territory. A blockade was estab
lished on the Missouri River to prevent further Free State emigration.
Lane raised his "Army of the North," and James Montgomery organized
reckless young Free Staters into a guerrilla band known as the "J av "
hawkers."
For two years a state of open warfare existed. Armed bands of border
ruffians from Missouri made forays into Kansas and were answered by
retaliatory companies of Jayhawkers. Men were called out into the night
and shot down for no other reason than that they supported or were sus
pected of supporting the opposite cause. Women and children, regardless
of age or condition, were driven from their homes with only the clothing
on their backs. Fields were laid waste and towns were sacked, all in the
name of the cause, but more often to gratify personal revenge or avarice.
On May 19, 1858, a band of pro-slavery men, led by Charles A. Hamel-
ton, gathered eleven Free State men of Linn County whom Hamelton
wished out of the way, herded them into a ravine near the Marais des
Cygnes River in the vicinity of Trading Post, and shot them down.
Under such conditions the gubernatorial office was a hazardous posi
tion. In seven years six governors and five acting governors came and
went, the Territorial capital was moved about like a chessman, and three
State constitutions were written and rejected. Martial law prevailed inter
mittently, and Free State leaders were indicted and imprisoned for high
treason.
Eventually the pro-slavery party was shorn of its power. Although
openly approved by the Federal Government under Pierce and again under
Buchanan, it was always in the minority and had assumed control only by
the high-handed policies of its allies from Missouri. In time the Free State
party became too powerful to be bullied. The census of 1860 showed a
population of 107,206, of which more than seventy per cent was anti-
slavery.
An election was held March 28, 1859, to decide whether another con
stitutional convention should be called; an affirmative vote was polled.
Delegates convened at Wyandotte on July 5 to frame a fourth constitu
tion, which declared that, "All men are possessed of equal and inalienable
natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi
ness." It was ratified by vote of the Territory on October 4, and the bill
HISTORY 53
for admission to the Union was immediately submitted to Congress. The
bill was passed by the Senate on January 21, 1861, by the House on
January 28, and signed by the President on January 29, making Kansas
the thirty-fourth State.
During this period, Kansas entertained some noted visitors. Horace
Greeley came to the Territory in May 1859, and on December i Abraham
Lincoln arrived to make campaign speeches in Elwood, Troy, Doniphan,
Atchison, and Leavenworth. Four years later, December 22, 1863, John
Wilkes Booth appeared at Leavenworth in Richard III.
In June 1859 a drought set in and continued until November 1860.
Crops had been neglected because of guerrilla warfare, and no surplus had
been accumulated; the result was famine. Many quit their claims in despair
and left the Territory. Those who remained were obliged to look to the
East for relief. The New York legislature voted $50,000 for that purpose,
and other States were equally generous.
But despite tumult and calamity the eastern part of Kansas had made
some progress. Forty counties had been set up with a generous sprinkling
of frontier towns. A weekly mail schedule linked the Territory with the
Pacific Coast by means of stagecoach and pony express, while steamboats
on the Missouri and Kansas Rivers connected it with the East. There were
more than twenty newspapers, a State Historical Society had been formed,
churches were numerous, and a State school system had been organized.
Tentative provisions had been made for the University of Lawrence, for a
penitentiary, and for other State institutions. Tracks for the first railroad,
the Elwood and Marysville (now the Union Pacific), had been laid, and
industry and agriculture were developing.
Dr. Charles Robinson was the first Governor of the new State. He at
once assembled the legislature and proceeded to inaugurate a State gov
ernment: establishing courts, organizing additional counties and school
systems, and providing for a program of general progress. Before any
thing could be accomplished, Kansas was called upon to participate in the
great national conflict, the Civil War.
On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volun
teers. Kansas, only three months a State and still suffering from drought
and the ravages of internal warfare, responded with 650 men. At the
second call, two companies were organized with no promise of pay, since
the new State had no money for military service. The total required of
Kansas during the four years of war was 16,654 m ^n. This was over
subscribed by more than 3,000, making a total of 20,097 constituting
eighteen regiments, three of which were Indian and two Negro. The first
54 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
regiment was mustered into service June 3, 1861; the last on July 28,
1864. The most important battle in which Kansas troops took part was
that of August 10, 1861, at Wilson s Creek, south of Springfield, Mis
souri, where approximately 10,000 Confederates were engaged by 5,000
Union men under General Nathaniel Lyon. Lyon was killed, and the
Unionists retreated with honor. The Eighth Kansas Volunteer Infantry,
led by Colonel John A. Martin of Atchison (who later became the State s
tenth Governor), after a year of border patrol service, joined the Army of
the Cumberland and fought at Chickamaugua, in the Chattanooga cam
paign, and marched with Sherman to the sea. It was the only Kansas
regiment attached to one of the major armies.
The Confederate force of General Sterling Price was the only one of
the major armies to cross the Kansas border. In September 1864 General
Price conducted the expedition known as Trice s Raid" through Arkansas
and Missouri. He entered Kansas through Linn County in an apparent
effort to reach Fort Scott, met the Unionists at Mine Creek and again at
the crossing of the Osage. Here he was turned back into Missouri, after
having caused damage to the extent of one-half million dollars, later to be
paid by the Government.
Though it was not in the zone of battle, the young State had its hands
full with guerrilla warfare on its eastern border and Indian uprisings in
the western part. Bands of bushwhackers led by William Clarke Quan-
trill, Bill Anderson, and others and the "Red Legs," so called from the
red morocco leggings they wore, were continually active in burning,
pillaging, and murdering. On August 21, 1863, Quantrill raided and
sacked the town of Lawrence, slaying about 150 of its citizens. In the west
the depredations of the Indians made organized resistance imperative.
National peace closed the conflict in eastern Kansas. Virtually all
Indian titles had been extinguished there, and that part of the State was
now free to plow its fields, plant orchards and vineyards, develop mines
and manufacturing, and extend railroads. By 1870 the agricultural college
at Manhattan, the State Teachers College at Emporia, and the University
at Lawrence had been established, as well as various denominational insti
tutions. The first unit of the capital building at Topeka had been com
pleted and was occupied. Coal was being mined in two counties, and gas
lights were in use. Meat packing had been established at Wyandotte, and
the first beef shipped to New York in refrigerator cars. A cotton gin was
in operation at Burlington and woolen mills at Lawrence and Fort Scott.
Bridges were spanning the Kansas River at Wyandotte and Topeka, tele
graph lines crossed the prairies, and railroad tracks reached a total of
HISTORY
55
WILD BILL HICKOK, CITY MARSHAL OF ABILENE
1,283 miles. The population had increased to 362,000, and the improved
acreage totaled 1,020,610.
Up to the close of the Civil War few settlers had ventured on the Plains
in western Kansas, for there was no timber for building, and the Indians
were hostile. This section of the State was left to another type of pioneer
the cowboy. When the Union Pacific Railroad reached Abilene in 1867,
Joseph G. McCoy conceived the idea of driving long-horned native cattle
56 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
from Texas to fatten on the convenient buffalo grass before shipping to
market. His idea proved profitable and in the next two decades the Plains
developed into an immense cow country. Riotous cow towns grew up of
which Abilene and Dodge City were typical with saloons, dance halls,
gambling dens, and loose women; and made colorful by the cowboy in
broad-brimmed hat, chaps, and kerchief, accoutered with spurs, lariat, and
revolver.
Infesting the prairies was another group, the border criminals cattle
thieves, bandits, and desperadoes who, in turn, called forth such fearless
and straight-shooting characters as Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Masterson, and
Buffalo Bill Cody. In 1871 "Wild Bill" was installed as marshal at
Abilene, where he served so effectively that other towns wanted him to act
in the same capacity. About the same time "Buffalo Bill" was employed to
provide buffalo meat for the Union Pacific workmen. It is said that in 18
months he killed 4,280 buffaloes for that purpose.
The cattle period was as short as it was lusty. On May 20, 1862, Con
gress passed the Homestead Law, making it possible to acquire 320 acres
of Plains land by homestead and preemption, with special inducements to
ex-Union soldiers. On March 3, 1863, it further provided that all Indians
should be removed from Kansas, an objective that was gradually accom
plished. But the most important factor in populating the range was the
railroad.
To encourage road building, large grants of land were made to the
railroad companies. As the tracks were extended, these lands were offered
for sale and the companies engaged in extensive advertising to speed up
purchase. Pamphlets and circulars were broadcast in the East and in
Europe, enticing colonists from England, Germany, Russia, Bohemia, and
the Scandinavian Peninsula as well as additional emigrants from the
eastern States. Distinguished Europeans were invited to come as visitors.
One of these was Grand Duke Alexis of Russia who, with his entourage,
was entertained at Topeka by Governor James M. Harvey and the State
legislature. Twenty years after the passage of the Homestead Law, lines of
barbed-wire fence enclosed the range.
Life for the early Plains settlers was filled with hardships. Buffalo chips
were the only fuel, and they had to be gathered from wide areas. Money
was scarce and crop failures were frequent. Even the possession of dug
outs and sod houses often had to be disputed with rattlesnakes and
gophers. In lean times the settlers turned, as had the Indians before them,
to the buffalo. Thousands were shot for their hides and other thousands
for sport from train windows, leaving carcasses to wolves and bones to the
HISTORY 57
weather. This proved fortunate, for the bones could be sold for fertilizer
at from six to ten dollars per ton; when crops failed, gathering buffalo
bones became a regular occupation. Another source of revenue was pro
vided by the wild horses. Large herds, descended from horses left by the
Spanish, roamed the grasslands and needed only to be caught and tamed.
This was an arduous task, but the "bronco-busting" settler was undaunted.
In 1874 a partial drought was experienced and following it came the
visitation known to Kansans simply as "the grasshoppers." In 1866 and
1867 these insects had appeared in sections of the State, but in 1874 they
came in hordes, filling the air and devouring every particle of vegetation.
In the eastern counties sufficient headway had been made to weather the
devastation; but in the west, where settlements were new and no surplus
had been accumulated, aid again had to come from the East.
In the same year a colony of Mennonite immigrants from Russia ar
rived, with enough money to buy land and withstand the grasshoppers.
Of far greater importance was the bushel or so of hand-picked hard
"Turkey Red" wheat carefully stowed away in the baggage of each family.
Up to that time attempts to grow wheat on the Plains had not been suc
cessful, but the Russian grain was perfectly adapted to these conditions.
From this beginning developed the vast wheat fields, which now give
Kansas ranking place among the wheat-growing States. Ten years later it
was able to reciprocate the aid given in 1874 by shipping carloads of corn
to flood victims in Ohio. At the same time, a trainload of grain went to
Virginia to help in raising a fund for a home for ex-Confederate soldiers.
The State legislature voted $30,000 in 1876 for the exhibit of native
products at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia; this created so
favorable an impression that it directed new interest to Kansas and
resulted in further increase in emigration.
By 1878 the population in the two sections of the State was fairly well-
defined. The eastern half was occupied largely by the pro- and anti-slavery
emigrants of the ante-bellum period ; the western half by latecomers from
the East, ex-Union soldiers and Europeans. But it was yet to receive the
sudden flow of emancipated Negroes, known as the "exodusters." From
the close of the Civil War, freed slaves from the South had trickled into
Kansas in small numbers; in 1878 lured by the false promise of "forty
acres and a mule," southern Negroes came in such numbers that 20,000
are said to have entered the State in four years. The Negro population in
1870 was 17,108; ten years later it had increased to 43,107. Benjamin
(Pap) Singleton, a Negro who styled himself the father of the exodus,
induced more than 7,000 Negroes to migrate from Tennessee alone. Most
58 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
of those who came in 1876-78 settled in one of his three colonies
Dunlap in the Neosho Valley, Singleton in Cherokee County, and Nicode-
mus (the only surviving "Exoduster" community) in Graham County. The
few who had teams and farm implements procured land or found work on
farms; the remainder swelled the growing towns and cities. Subsequent
growth of Negro population was relatively slow, the increase in the next
fifty years being only 23,000.
In 1878 Indian troubles were terminated with the last Cheyenne raid in
western Kansas. The State, finally at peace, had time to consider a long-
vexing problem prohibition. The control of liquor had always been a
live issue. In 1855 the "bogus legislature" provided for local option with
the Dram Shop Law, copied from the Missouri statutes. This law was
never satisfactory in Kansas and, to improve upon it, such towns as Em-
poria, Baldwin, and Topeka adopted measures revoking titles to land on
which liquor was sold. The subject of State prohibition was considered at
each constitutional convention. Organizations such as the Good Templars
were created, embodying the temperance pledge in their constitutions. In
1860 the sale of liquor to Indians was prohibited. The State Temperance
Society held its first meeting the following year. The Wi Hard-Murphy
Temperance movement swept the State in 1870; in 1873 the Women s
Crusade was begun, with groups meeting in saloons to smash containers,
spill liquor, and pray with drunken habitues. Through these agencies local
prohibition was effected in various counties and towns, but it was not until
1 88 1, under the administration of the eighth Governor, John P. St. John,,
that the State prohibition law was passed.
The decade following "the grasshoppers" was exceptionally prosperous
and the whole State entered into a boom of speculation. Eastern money,,
made readily available, was diverted into public and private improvements;
with reckless abandon. Land values were boosted, "false front" buildings,
erected, "paper" towns were laid out. Then came the drought of 1887,
and the boom collapsed. Demands made for loans could not be met, banks-
and business houses failed, and, especially in the western counties, thou
sands of settlers who faced foreclosure left the State.
In 1889 approximately 50,000 Kansas settlers moved to the newly
opened land in Oklahoma, leaving the Plains virtually abandoned. Four
years later the general panic of 1893, together with another partial crop
failure, brought a second period of "hard times." But the State was then
too well established to be more than temporarily affected. Eastern emigra
tion soon refilled the western counties, and another succession, of good
HISTORY 59
crops restored confidence. Greeley, the last of the State s 105 counties, was
organized July 9, 1888, and pioneering days were over.
The year 1889 was distinguished by the largest corn crop in Kansas his
tory and by the first manufacture of beet sugar. To encourage the latter, a
bounty was immediately offered by the State, and beet sugar making is
now a staple industry in the southwestern counties. In the same year salt
making was begun in the central part of the State, and oil and natural gas
were added to the list of industries in 1892. Surplus fuel in the gas-
producing region brought other manufacturing, such as brickmaking, zinc
smelting, glass, and cement. The value of livestock and farm products in
creased; in seven years, from 1887 to 1894, it aggregated more than
$4,000,000,000, making possible the payment of public and private debts
to the amount of $100,000,000. From the first experimental orchard
planted at the Shawnee Mission (Johnson County) in 1837, patient care
and selection had developed fruit raising throughout the eastern part of
the State. In 1876 Kansas apples were awarded the gold medal at the ex
position in Philadelphia, giving that product a prestige it still maintains.
The State s politics kept pace with its social and industrial development.
In 1872 Kansas farmers organized a local grange of the Society of Patrons
of Husbandry, which had been formed in Washington, D. C, in 1867, to
improve farm life. In 1884 the Women s State Suffrage Association was
formed ; and three years later the movement secured the admittance of
women to school, bond, and municipal elections. In the late i88o s a num
ber of farm and labor parties became active. The Farmers Alliance was
most promising, and within two years it had become a power in the State.
In 1890 at a State convention called by Benjamin H. Clover, a Cowley
County farmer, it joined with the Grangers, Single Tax Club, Industrial
Union, Knights of Labor, and others to form the People s or Populist
Party. The party first concentrated its efforts to bring about the defeat of
Senator John J. Ingalls and mustered enough votes in the State legislature
of 1891 to elect William A. Peffer to the office Ingalls had held for 18
years. Populist orators, led by Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease, stumped the
State, telling the farmers that the "money power" was conspiring to ruin
them. Mrs. Lease is remembered for her advice to Kansas farmers "to raise
less corn and more hell." By 1892 Populist strength was sufficient to elect
the twelfth Governor, Lorenzo D. Lewelling.
The legislature assembled under Governor Lewelling echoed the turbu
lence of Territorial days. Both Republicans and Populists claimed the
right to organize the house, each holding to its claim with a tenacity that
60 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
required the presence of the State militia. Speakers from each party occu
pied the stand, wielding their gavels simultaneously. It is said that, for
one night at least, they shared a common blanket back of the rostrum,
since neither was willing to yield prerogative to the other. The difference
was finally settled by an appeal to the State supreme court, which decided
that the Republicans should occupy Representative Hall, the Populists
agreeing to meet elsewhere.
Five Populist Congressmen were elected to office during the days of the
party s ascendancy, including the brilliant Jerry Simpson of Medicine
Lodge, known in Kansas annals as "Sockless Jerry." Simpson, a cattleman
who had been ruined by the disastrous blizzard of 1886, was nominated to
represent the Seventh Congressional District in 1890; his ability was rec
ognized when he eloquently opposed the platform adopted by the conven
tion, and the platform was revised to conform with his views. He was
twice reelected and ably supported all legislation sponsored by his party
during his tenure of office.
The Populists repeated their victory with the election of Governor John
W. Leedy in 1896 then their power waned. Returning prosperity quieted
the political upheaval, and the Populists were eventually reabsorbed by the
two main parties, the Democratic and Republican. The latter party, off
spring of the Territorial Free Soilers, has, in general, been dominant. Of
the 27 Governors to date (1938), only five including Walter A. Hux-
man (1937-39) have been Democrats.
Kansas contributed four regiments to the Spanish- American War. One
of them, the 2oth under Colonel Frederick Funston, made a remarkable
record in the Philippines; the 23rd, composed of Negroes, was sent to
Cuba, arriving in time to see the Spanish depart ; while the other two, the
2ist and 22nd, were trained and held in readiness, but did not leave the
.States.
In the 1890*5 another militant leader appeared on the Kansas horizon
a round-faced little woman with a hatchet Carry Nation. Although "dry"
in theory, Kansas was still "wet" in fact. Mrs. Nation, driven by her expe
riences with a drunken husband, set out to remedy the evil. She smashed
saloons with zeal and won for herself a permanent place in history, al
though her actual accomplishments were little more than a ripple on the
pool of the State s "wetness." The problem of liquor is still vexing. In
1937 the State legislature legalized the manufacture and sale of beer of
3.2 per cent alcoholic content. Sterner liquors, although legally banned,
.are frankly in evidence in many communities.
In other matters the State government has proved competent. In 1883
HISTORY 6l
when the railroads, grown exceedingly wealthy, threatened to become auto
cratic, the State executive council elected a board of railroad commission
ers to curb their power by fixing freight and passenger rates and regulat
ing working conditions. A special session of the legislature was called in
1884 to deal with the foot-and-mouth disease that was scourging Kansas
cattle. In 1889 the eight-hour labor law was enacted and the first Monday
of September set aside for the observance of "Labor Day." In 1894 a
board of irrigation was appointed and an appropriation of $30,000 was
made for irrigation experiments.
Other socially progressive action was taken as the need arose. A text
book commission and a traveling library commission were established.
Laws were passed on compulsory education and child labor, and a juvenile
court was created. Pensions were provided for indigent mothers. An ap
propriation of $100,000 was made for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
Legislation was enacted to regulate the oil industry, and was later made
applicable to meat packing, flour milling, and other manufacturing. A
blue-sky law, regulating and supervising investment companies, was passed.
The public utilities commission was established, weights and measures
were standardized. A State highway commission was created and a better
roads program was launched. The State printing plant was set up, and the
State budget system was started.
In 1913, under the administration of Governor George H. Hodges and
preceded only by six other States Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming,
Washington, and California Kansas extended complete suffrage to women
and increased their number in administrative offices from one to twenty-
three. The next administration, under Governor Arthur Capper, waged
war on the unfair practices of the natural gas companies and eventually
put an end to a litigation that involved thousands of dollars in fees to
political lawyers and constituted one of the worst of judicial scandals in
the State.
Kansas furnished more than its quota for the World War. Altogether,
80,261 Kansans saw service. The Kansas National Guard became part of
the 35th Division. Under the Selective Service Act, Kansans were in the
89th, the 35th and the 42nd (Rainbow) Divisions, and were in action at
Saint Mihiel and in the Argonne. But the State perhaps made its greatest
contribution through its farmlands and its training camps Camp Funston
and the School of the Line at Fort Leavenworth.
A unique political campaign was conducted in Kansas during the War.
Henry J. Allen, although personally engaged in Red Cross Service in
France, was nominated and elected Governor by the largest majority ever
62 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
polled in the State. He resigned from the Red Cross and came home to
assume the gubernatorial office on January 13, 1919.
The following autumn Alexander Howat, president of the Kansas dis
trict union of the United Mine Workers of America, called a strike of the
Kansas coal miners. Reacting to the War, the entire country was then in a
state of unrest, and strikes were frequent in many lines of industry. In the
preceding three years, 364 strikes had been called in the mines of Kansas,
and in the fall of 1919 the coal supply was exhausted. Kansas faced a fuel
famine. The Governor obtained a State s receivership for the mines and
mined coal with volunteer labor made up of college students, members of
the American Legion and others, protected by the Kansas National Guard.
With the crisis over, the Governor sought to prevent recurrence of trou
ble. In 1920 an extra session of the legislature was called and the Court
of Industrial Relations was organized. In this court was vested the power
to control strikes and to fix a minimum wage for the miners. Its establish
ment the first attempt at compulsory arbitration in the United States
drew the attention of the Nation to Kansas (see INDUSTRY, COM
MERCE AND LABOR). The court was abolished by the State legislature
in 1925.
Under the administration of Governor Jonathan M. Davis, a bonus of
$25,000,000 was distributed to ex-service men in 1923. The following
year the Ku Klux Klan, nation-wide in its scope, threatened the political,
racial, and religious freedom of the State and brought William Allen
White into the race for Governor on an anti-Klan platform, a gesture de
scribed by the Kansas City Star as one of those successful failures through
which civilization edges forward."
In 1930, Dr. John R. Brinkley entered the gubernatorial race and, un
der stress of depression conditions, was almost elected. His candidacy
came from a desire for vindication. On September 17, 1930, his license
was revoked by the Kansas State Medical Board on charges of quackery
and malpractice in his hospital at Milford; five days later he announced
his candidacy for Governor. During his campaign, he promised free text
books, free medical clinics, hundreds of miles of paved roads, and a free
lake in every county, with no increase in taxes.
During Governor Alfred M. Landon s administration a cash basis law
was passed in 1933, putting the State on a "pay-as-you-go" policy. Gover
nor Landon s successful administration under this law, and his reelection
in 1934 as the only Republican State executive elected west of the Hudson
River, led to his nomination as the Republican candidate for the Presi
dency in 1936. Kansas, however, returned a plurality of more than 60,000
HISTORY 63
for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and elected its fifth Democratic Gov
ernor, Walter A. Huxman, of Hutchinson.
Kansas has weathered many calamities and earned its motto, "To the
Stars through Difficulty." Internal strife at once tragic and fantastic-
ravaged the State in its early decades. Blizzards, droughts, floods, and
grasshopper plagues brought death and destruction. But progress has been
steady. Where once roamed the Indian and the buffalo, there are now or
chards and vineyards, dairy farms, and endless fields of wheat, corn, and
alfalfa. The vest pocket village, with its lone towering grain elevator and
general store, is the meeting place for farmers who live miles apart. The
radio and the automobile has rescued him from isolation. Broad ribbons
of concrete crisscross the prairies, and the trains of 17 great railway sys
tems steam through the State. Packing plants, flour mills, and mines give
employment to thousands of workers. Oil derricks point skyward, and
huge power houses churn out electricity. Remedial measures, carried out
cooperatively by Federal, State, and local agencies, are solving the three
fold problem of flood, drought, and soil depletion.
WHEAT
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Agriculture
A LTHOUGH the first American explorers who passed through the
J[\^ Territory reported that the region was totally unfit for human habi
tation, history records that the Indians who lived on the Kansas plains be
fore the coming of the white men practiced agriculture after a crude fash
ion. Thus the first Kansas farmers were Indian squaws who raised small
crops of corn and beans to supplement the diet of game. They planted
seeds in holes punched in the ground with sharpened sticks, and cultivated
the crop with implements fashioned from buffalo bones.
The first white farmers were Frenchmen who settled in the Wolf River
country, now Doniphan County, during the latter part of the eighteenth
century, and planted fields of corn in the rich glacial soil of this north
eastern corner of the State.
In 1827 the Government decided to conduct agricultural experiments in
the Territory acquired through the Louisiana Purchase and sent Daniel
Morgan Boone to teach farming to the Kansas Indians. This son of the
famous Kentucky frontiersman took a farm of one hundred acres on
Stonehouse Creek in the present-day Jefferson County, less than fifty miles
from the land broken by the Wolf River Frenchmen of the previous cen
tury. The early missionaries also engaged in agriculture to some extent;
but it did not become the major occupation of the Kansas Plains until the
Territory was opened to settlement in 1854.
Many of the early settlers, who turned to agriculture as the only means
of livelihood a precarious means at best had no natural aptitude or
training for it. They were brought into the Territory by the New England
Emigrant Aid Company and other organizations solely for the purpose of
setting up communities of anti-slavery voters, and were hastily selected
with little thought of their fitness as practical farmers. Consequently, it is
not strange that Kansas agriculture, hampered from the outset by climatic
conditions that were frequently adverse, inexperience on the part of set
tlers, and bitter political strife, did not prosper.
The pioneer farmers of the 1850*5 broke the sod with ox teams hitched
to crude plows. Many of them planted corn by slitting the sod with an
65
66 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
axe, dropping the kernels into the slits, and closing them by stamping.
This was in violation of the belief then common that "y ou can t grow
corn on sod." Strangely enough one of the unorthodox corn planters
raised a crop that averaged nearly one hundred bushels to the acre. The
story of "Sodcorn" Jones was widely circulated, but few of the settlers
gave it credence, persisting in the theory that newly broken sod would not
grow anything but pumpkins and melons. Corn was cultivated with the
hoe ; wheat was sown by hand, harvested with a cradle, and threshed with
a flail. The first Mennonite wheat farmers separated the grain from the
straw by rolling or dragging cogged cylindrical stones over the bundles
(see NEWTON).
At the close of the Civil War the Government offered homesteads in
Kansas to Union Army veterans and more than 100,000 took advantage
of the opportunity. These sturdy young veterans were Kansas first real
pioneer farmers. The majority had been reared on farms in the older semi-
prairie States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and understood the difficul
ties confronting the farmer who breaks virgin soil in prairie country.
Others came from Kentucky, the mountains of Tennessee, and Missouri.
Farming was a year-round occupation in the Kansas of that time. Sod-
turning was a tedious process with oxen and a plow not adapted to the
task. A team of oxen with one man to drive and one to hold the plow
could not break more than an acre in a day, and since this work had to be
done between the thawing of the ground in March and corn-planting time
in April, a farmer could break only a small amount of land each year.
Hand-planting and cultivating consumed all the farmer s time until mid
summer; then he cut prairie hay and stacked it; and after that the corn
had to be husked.
Wheat, a minor crop in the early days, and oats were sown broadcast
by hand after the sod had rotted long enough to permit the seed to be
covered. These grains were harvested by primitive methods precisely like
those used by Roman farmers 2,000 years before.
The first radical change in Kansas agriculture occurred in 1874 when a
colony of Mennonites came to the plains of central Kansas from southern
Russia. Originally German, these bearded farmers had migrated to Russia
at the time of Catherine the Great to evade military service, to which they
were opposed on religious grounds. During their sojourn in Russia they
had developed a variety of hard wheat called Turkey Red because of the
color of the grain and because the seed had originally been obtained from
Turkey. This variety thrived on the steppes of Russia a semi-arid plains
A COOPERATIVE ELEVATOR IN SHAWNEE COUNTY
-egion and the Mennonites rightly believed it was adapted to Kansas
peculiar conditions of climate and soil.
Turkey Red grew better in Kansas than varieties of the grain brought
by earlier settlers from their eastern farms, as it was more drought-
resistant and hardy. Observing the success of their oddly dressed neigh
bors, the American-born farmers bought quantities of Turkey Red seed
Irom them and in turn prospered as wheat growers. Thus began Kansas
greatest industry.
Prior to 1874 Kansas had never produced as much as 5,000,000 bushels
of wheat in a year and no one expected it to become a great wheat-raising
State. Corn was king in those days and corn bread spread with sorghum
molasses was the staple fare of Kansas farm families. Today, thanks to
the Mennonites and their imitators, Kansas produces thirty times as much
wheat as it did before these immigrants brought their Turkey Red to the
State. An average wheat crop today is 170,000,000 bushels. The record
yield, in 1931, was 240,000,000 bushels.
The second revolution in Kansas agricultural methods, machine farm-
68 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
ing, was hailed at its inception as the dawn of an era of everlasting plenty,
but it has resulted in near disaster. Prairie agriculture had two elements
that encouraged the rapid development of machine farming: the general
levelness of the plains and the abundance of horsepower. There were few
trees to be cut in clearing the land, no stumps to impede the progress of
wheeled implements. There were also thousands of wild horses in Kansas
and horse wranglers prospered in the i88o s by roping and breaking these
animals for use on farms. At the same time horse breeders began to im
port heavy European work horses and cross them with the wild horses for
the farm market.
Farming in Kansas during the last two decades of the nineteenth cen
tury and first decades of the twentieth was a matter of horsepower and
wheeled machinery. Corn was still the leading crop; it was in the more
highly mechanized age to come that wheat gained the ascendancy. Horse-
drawn plows broke out fresh acres of sod, horse-drawn corn planters sowed
the grain. During the growing season teams of horses or mules pulled cul
tivators along the corn rows. Kansas became a great corn State, reaching
its peak of corn production in 1889 with a yield of 273,000,000 bushels.
But in these years of apparent prosperity thousands of Kansas farmers
were faced with poverty and foreclosure. After the first wave of home
steaders swept across the State following the Civil War, a period of mass
development and speculation began. Many Kansas farmers worked under
the handicap of a heavy mortgage from the beginning. In the early iSyo s
the pioneer farmers paid the interest on their mortgages by killing buf
falo and selling their hides. After ruthlessly exterminating the buffalo,
they paid taxes and interest by gathering buffalo bones and selling them
to fertilizer manufacturers.
In Missouri and other States eastward to the Alleghenies a new farm
was unmortgagable because no one would lend money on it until it was
well improved and showed a profit. In Kansas, however, speculators ac
quired large areas of land during the frenzied boom days of the i88o s,
lured prospective farmers to the treeless plains with promises of wealth,
and sold them land on mortgage. The settlers, having acquired the land
under this precarious title, were forced to borrow more money to buy ma
terial for improvements and for machinery and livestock. Thus mortgaged
before the first plow was put to sod, a large proportion of Kansas farms
never showed a profit.
Hundreds of farmers were facing foreclosure in 1890. The record-
breaking corn crop of 1889 had done little to relieve the situation. Ham
pered by their heavy mortgages and with the ever-present specter of
AGRICULTURE 69
drought, Kansas farmers needed both a bumper crop and a good price to
break even. But a nation-wide depression had lowered the price of farm
produce so that corn sold as low as ten cents a bushel, and farmers sold
their corn as fast as they husked it to meet interest at the bank. Most of
the buyers were speculators who took advantage of the farmers plight by
driving a sharp bargain and holding the grain for a better price. One vil
lage banker boasted of buying thousands of bushels of corn at ten cents a
bushel and selling it the following year for sixty-five cents. Crop failures
in the 1890*5 brought foreclosures and tax sales. Gradually much of the
land reverted to the speculators and farm tenancy began in Kansas, the
land of opportunity.
The Farmers Alliance, which later became the Populist party, appeared
at this time, advocating "free silver," a reform of the banking laws, and
other measures calculated to enable the farmers to pay off their mortgages.
In 1892 the Populists elected a Governor and succeeded in securing a ma
jority in the State legislature. Some benefits resulted but on the whole the
speculators and industrialists succeeded in defeating the aims of the Pop
ulists.
Accompanied by a steady increase in farm tenancy, Kansas agriculture
moved into the twentieth century and the motor age. The use of motorized
farm machinery may be thought of as a third cycle in Kansas farming. In
1910 there were 1,150,000 horses and mules on the farms, and these draft
animals provided a home market for $50,000,000 worth of Kansas corn
and other feed. But tractors began to replace draft animals in 1915 and
the number of all kinds of tractors and motorized harvesters steadily in
creased. The greater efficiency of large-scale farming led naturally to the
introduction of the combine; and the World War, through its enormous
consumption of grain, accelerated its use.
This machine, the mechanical answer to the demand for more wheat
produced with less labor, harvests the grain in a single operation, threshes
it, and pours it into motor trucks for shipment to the elevators. Its intro
duction materially reduced the number of "harvest hands," those pictur
esque laborers who crossed the State in an army during every harvest sea
son (see Tour 4). Gone is the Kansas of which Vachel Lindsay wrote:
And we felt free in Kansas
From any sort of fear
And 30,000 tramps like us
There harvest every year.
Horses also continued to increase in number until 1919, when they
reached a peak of 1,300,000 draft animals; thereafter their number began
70 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
to decline sharply. Seventeen years later (1936) motorized farming was
at its height with 63,000 farm tractors and 24,000 combines; in the same
year there were only 545,000 draft animals.
As the overproduction of wheat and loss of foreign markets brought
prices down, the wheat farmers, by improved technique, increased produc
tion in an effort to compensate for price losses. At this time the "suitcase
farmers" entered the field. They were non-resident owners who had pur
chased large areas of land and hired farmers in the neighborhood to plow
and seed them to wheat. The term, "suitcase farmer," has also been ap
plied to the small-town bankers and business men in the western Kansas
wheat country who bought or leased lands and employed farmers to plant
and harvest their crops for them. This practice, defended because it fur
nished employment for the farmers, was also widely condemned as mere
speculation, not farming. It was not unusual for a single suitcase farmer
to finance the planting of from 3,000 to 5,000 acres of wheat. With a crop
once in five years he could make money, providing he received a good
price for his grain.
In 1914 under horse and mule power, Kansas farmers planted 9,000,-
ooo acres and harvested 181,000,000 bushels of wheat which they sold for
$151,500,000. In 1931, at the height of the motorized farming period,
they planted 12,000,000 acres and raised 240,000,000 bushels which they
sold for $81,500,000. Motorized farming surpassed the older type by a
margin of 60,000,000 bushels of wheat in a year; but smaller crops
brought greater financial returns. With machines the farmers raised more
wheat, by 60,000,000 bushels, and received less money, by $70,000,000.
The price per bushel was ninety cents in 1914 and thirty cents in 1931.
Wheat is in some ways a substitute for corn, and the thirty-cent wheat
pushed corn down to ten cents a bushel. Feeding this cheap grain to hogs
and cattle in an effort to market it in the form of high-priced meat, the
unfortunate farmers depressed the market for hogs to two-and-one-half
cents a pound. It took a 2oo-pound porker to bring in a five dollar bill,
just as in 1889 the farmers had to load fifty bushels of corn on a single
wagon to get five dollars for one trip to market.
It was not until 1914 that wheat acreage exceeded that of corn; there
were 9,116,138 acres of wheat and only 5,279,552 acres of corn, the de
posed king. This shift represented a sharp increase in wheat acreage rather
than a heavy decrease in corn. Wheat reached a peak in 1931 with an
acreage of 12,345,596; it dropped in 1933 to 5,755,328 acres, owing
partly to the depression price of this grain, which caused many farmers to
sow their land to other crops or let them lie fallow, and partly to the
THRESHING
U. S. Agricultural Adjustment Administration program. In that year corn,
with an acreage of 7,725,043, briefly regained its former supremacy.
Hot winds and inadequate rainfall during the growing season resulted
in a series of corn crop failures in eastern Kansas that brought hundreds
of formerly prosperous farmers to the verge of bankruptcy. Desperately
in need of a cash crop to meet taxes and interest in the fall of 1936, many
of these corn growers tore down their corn field and pasture fences, sawed
the hedge fence posts into stove wood lengths, and sowed the fields to
wheat. The venture was successful. With a good yield and prices ranging
from $i to $1.10 a bushel, profits were large.
Consequently new wheat fields were planted in 1937 and the State s
total wheat acreage leaped to the all-time record of 13,549,000. The pur
chase of tractors and combines absorbed much of the profits from the 1937
crop, however, and a short crop in 1938 with a much lower price gave the
novice wheat growers a severe setback. Agricultural advisers had counseled
igainst turning the fertile river valleys and glacial uplands into a one-
72 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
crop country; their reasons for advocating diversification and a partial re
turn to the old corn-hog economy were strengthened by weather condi
tions favorable for production of the traditional crop. Farmers who had
stubbornly "stuck to corn" were able to fill their bins for the first time in
five years, while their get- rich- quick neighbors were marketing a scanty
wheat crop at less than sixty cents a bushel. Grain sorghums and other
forage crops were cultivated with success and the replenished supply of
grain for livestock feed brought beef and pork "on the hoof" back to de
serted pastures and hog lots.
In 1936 there were 174,580 farms in cultivation in the State, averaging
275 acres in area. Of these 96,896 were wholly or partially owned by
their occupants, while 76,77.1 were occupied by tenants. Farms vary in
size from lo-acre truck patches in the eastern river valleys to 5o,ooo-acre
ranches in some of the western counties. In sections of eastern Kansas,
where rainfall is adequate and soil sufficiently fertile to permit intensive
farming and wide diversification, 80 to 160 acres is normally a subsistence
homestead. On the western plains where wheat is often the only crop, few
farmers attempt to make a living on less than 240 acres and many wheat
farmers plant several sections.
The northeastern section of the State is regarded as part of the Corn
Belt, especially Doniphan, Atchison, Brown, Nemaha, Jackson, Jefferson,
Leavenworth, and Shawnee counties, which have large areas of rich gla
cial drift, and to a lesser degree the remaining counties in the northern
tier as far west as Jewell County. Before the drought cycle of 1931-37,
more than half of the average homestead of 160 acres was devoted to
corn. The remaining portions of the typical Kansas corn-hog farms were
pasture, and small fields of wheat, oats, or grain sorghum. The farmer de
veloped the self-sustaining corn-hog economy by feeding his corn to the
hogs to fatten them for market and selling the surplus grain.
The river valleys of northeastern Kansas and the major portion of
southeastern Kansas are devoted to general farming with diversified culti
vation. The Flint Hills region, which is carpeted with bluestem grass, is
one of the finest grazing sections of the United States. West of an imag
inary line extending north and south through Salina and Wichita to the
Oklahoma Line is the winter wheat country, where until recent years,
nearly one-half of the hard wheat in the United States was produced.
Efforts at fruit growing, especially in eastern Kansas, met with phe
nomenal success during the early seventies. The Kansas horticultural ex
hibit at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 gave the State a widespread
reputation. But, as the virgin soil was drained of its productivity, many
AGRICULTURE 73
orchards died and were never successfully replanted. The upland glacial
drift in Doniphan County, however, still supports large apple orchards
and the cultivation of this fruit is a leading industry in the areas along
the great bend of the Missouri River. Strawberries are also grown in the
t.iree river counties.
Broom corn is grown extensively in the southwestern corner of the
State, in Seward, Stanton, Stevens, and Morton counties. Prior to the dust
s.orms that accompanied the recent drought cycle, the towns of Elkhart
and Liberal were among the largest shipping centers of this product in
the world. Sugar beets are grown in the Arkansas River Valley near Gar
den City and Lamed where large areas are irrigated. The cultivation of
flax, which was an important crop before the introduction of winter wheat,
has been revived to a considerable extent in recent years, especially in
southeastern Kansas. Experts from the State College are urging farmers to
grow flax on a larger scale.
In the fertile valleys of eastern Kansas, particularly the Kaw Valley,
potatoes and melons are major crops. In a good season the State produces
2,500,000 bushels of Irish potatoes. Alfalfa, a deep-rooted drought-resist
ant hay, is important among the lesser crops. Introduced by Charles J.
Grosse, of Marion, who planted 90 bushels of seed imported from Cali
fornia in 1869, its first recorded acreage was in 1891, when 34,384 acres
were planted. A peak acreage of 1,277,875 was reached in 1918 and the ten-
year average since 1927 has been approximately 750,000 acres.
Kansas has never suffered from a lack of transportation from produc
tion center to market, owing to the fact that the State, after the first decade
of immigration, was settled as part of a great railroad expansion scheme.
But farmers during the past fifty years have had to fight ceaselessly against
two enemies: land speculation and drought. Through the various agencies
of the Federal Government the farmer of the "dust bowl" and semi-arid
areas has managed to survive a long period of subnormal rainfall. Eco
nomically, central Kansas has weathered adverse climatic conditions better
than the eastern and extreme western sections, as crop failures have been
less frequent in the central part of the State.
In general, the years of drought have considerably reduced the returns
from Kansas agriculture; yet in one of the worst drought years, 1934, the
wheat crop was valued at $67,205,989, and the corn crop at $9,183,968.
The 1937 wheat crop was valued at $170,000,000. In 1933 Kansas live
stock was valued at more than $100,000,000. Prior to the emergency
drought programs of 1934 more cattle were raised on Kansas farms than
in the days when the western part of the State was an open range. It is
CATTLE FEEDING IN SHELTER OF COTTONWOOD WINDBREAK
estimated (1937) that Kansas has nearly 3,000,000 cattle; 2,500,000 beef
cattle, and 500,000 dairy animals. Approximately 2,000,000 hogs and
300,000 sheep are raised for market annually.
In contrast to the reverses from drought and wholesale speculation are
the benefits of scientific research carried out by trained workers at Kansas
State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. After years of experi
mentation great improvement in production has been made by selection
of the varieties of crops planted. The idea that rain follows the plow,"
which grew up during the boom period of the i88o s, has finally been dis
proved. Farmers are now adjusting their methods to climatic conditions
rather than to the futile hope that turning the sod of the arid High Plains
will increase the annual rainfall.
Drought-resistant strains of corn and wheat have been developed, and
farmers have learned through experience to diversify their crops. In re
cent years the acreage of grain sorghums, of which many varieties have
been produced, has increased, especially in western areas where the rain
fall is not adequate for growing corn and the soil has been pulverized to
the danger point by a series of unsuccessful attempts to grow wheat.
Nearly every Kansas county is receiving the benefits of the extension
4-H FARMERS ARE VISITED BY THE COUNTY AGENT
service conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture and
Kansas State College. The three phases of this service include work with
the farmers in agricultural methods, work with farm women in home eco
nomics, and work with boys and girls in the 4-H Clubs.
"Through the development of the head, heart, hand, and health," writes
M. H. Coe, State club leader, "comes the term VH, which signifies the
four-fold educational development or training which 4-H Club boys and
girls must receive to insure success in any undertaking." Each club mem
ber selects a project designed to show some better practice on the farm or
in the home. In 1933 there were 19,353 members in 100 counties with
26,239 completed projects. In the same year 4-H Club members made
4,321 entries at the Topeka and Hutchinson State Fairs and won $4,325
in prize money. The total value of products raised by 4-H Club members
was $387,726.
~j6 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
The long succession of abnormally dry seasons turned a considerable
area in western Kansas into a near desert. Wheat planting had destroyed
the natural coverage of buffalo grass and left the soil exposed to the rav
ages of drought and wind. By 1934 soil blowing had become a major
problem, and by the following year the area affected had increased to
8,871,227 acres. Preventive measures adopted by the Federal Government
and the State department of agriculture have largely checked the inroads
of wind erosion. Submarginal land has been withdrawn from cultivation
and in some areas efforts are being made to revive the buffalo grass pas
tures. By 1938 the Kansas dust bowl had almost disappeared, and soil
drifting was confined to three or four counties in the extreme southwest
ern corner of the State.
On the recommendation of the U. S. Farm Security Administration, the
State department of agriculture, the State planning board, the agricultural
extension service, and other conservation agencies, soil-building crops,
such as the legumes, are now being planted and a far-reaching program
of water conservation and flood control has been adopted.
TransDortation
JL
EFORE the coming of white men, the Indians in Kansas had no beast
of burden other than the dog and no means of conveyance save the
dugout canoe and the travois, a simple contrivance of two poles between
which a dog was hitched, with the packs secured to the dragging ends.
Coronado and the other Spanish explorers who followed him intro
duced the horse, which the Indians readily adopted for riding and pack-
carrying and to replace the dog at the travois. But they attempted no
further improvement in transportation.
After the Spanish came the French trappers and fur traders, who ex
plored the country and developed river transportation. They used succes
sively the dugout canoe; the pirogue, two canoes lashed together and
floored over to form a raft; the bullboat made by stretching buffalo hides
over a circular willow frame ; and the bateau or Mackinaw, a clumsy, flat-
Bottomed boat of from 10 to 20 tons. But there they halted, and no fur-
rher development took place until after the official explorations of the
early nineteenth century.
The expedition of Lewis and Clark to the northwest in 1804 stimulated
i:he fur trade. The great fur companies introduced the keelboat a large
craft of from 20 to 70 tons, so named from the heavy timber that formed
jts central rib. In 1819 the steamboat, the Western Engineer, transported
Ihe scientific expedition of Major Stephen H. Long a short distance up the
Kansas River and subsequently up the Missouri. Steamboats, however,
were not employed commercially in Kansas until 1829, when a steam
packet was placed in operation on the Missouri River from St. Louis to
Cantonment Leavenworth (now Fort Leavenworth).
Meanwhile, Captain Zebulon M. Pike s second expedition (1806-07)
directed interest to the Southwest, particularly to the Spanish town of
Santa Fe, which was rich in trading possibilities. In the next few years
traders from Missouri attempted to participate in this trade, only to be
thrown into Spanish jails for their intrusion. But after Mexican independ
ence had been declared (September 1821), Captain William Becknell
opened the trade with a pack train taken from Franklin, Missouri, on the
77
~j8 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
Missouri River near Booneville, across Kansas to the Arkansas River near
Great Bend, up that stream to the Rocky Mountains, then south to Santa
Fe, where he disposed of cotton goods at "$3 per yard" and other items
in proportion. The next year he returned with three wagons, this time
crossing the Arkansas a little west of the present Dodge City, going south
over the Cimarron desert, thence west to Santa Fe. Thus Becknell became
the "Father of the Santa Fe Trail," establishing its separate courses and
introducing wheeled vehicles, the first to cross the Kansas plains.
Other traders were immediately attracted, and the trade flourished. In
1825 Congress authorized the surveying and marking of the trail. Wagons
soon outnumbered pack animals; and the light carriers used by Becknell
were replaced by heavy Conestogas huge, ponderous vehicles with a con
cave bed built high at each end. With their white canvas covers and sway-
backed appearance, they became universally known as "prairie schooners."
Loaded with cotton and woolen goods, silks, velvets, and hardware to the
extent of from 3,000 to 5,000 pounds, and drawn by eight or more oxen
or mules, they wended their slow way out of Independence, the eastern
terminus, in early spring through incredible herds of northern-bound
buffalo, and returned in the fall with horses and mules, blankets, furs,
robes, and heavy bags of Spanish gold and silver. By 1843 the annual
monetary value of the trade was about $450,000.
Meanwhile the Oregon Trail was being established. In 1830 William
Sublette took the first wagons over the Oregon Trail to the head of the
Popo Algie River, southwest of Lander, Wyoming. Captain Benjamin
L. E. Bonneville succeeded in crossing the Rocky Mountains via the South
Pass in 1832, with a train of 20 wagons, paving the way for a few hardy
missionaries who settled in the Willamette Valley. Government interest
followed, and in 1842 Lieutenant John C. Fremont was sent to locate the
South Pass and survey a road into the Territory of Oregon. Before he had
completed the task, however, a party of settlers was on the road; and in
1843 the "Great Migration" began.
On May 22 of that year a caravan of 875 persons, including women
and children, in wagons, and about 2,000 horses and cattle moved out of
Independence on the long journey. From Independence they followed the
Santa Fe Trail to Gardner, Kansas, where later a crude sign gave the
simple direction "Road to Oregon." Here they turned to the northwest,
crossing the Kansas River in the vicinity of Topeka, followed the Big
Blue to the Platte Valley, and proceeded through the South Pass to their
destination.
TRANSPORTATION 79
This was, in effect, the route of the Oregon Trail in Kansas, although,
as steamboat traffic increased on the Missouri and created new supply
depots, various starting points were selected and eventually numerous
roads converged into the main trail. The Santa Fe Trail, too, had starting
points all along the western border of Missouri and north Arkansas, with
tributary roads branching into it for a considerable distance. One of the
better known branches was the Cherokee Trail, which started at Fort
Smith, Arkansas, and finally struck the Oregon, California, and Salt Lake
trails at Fort Bridger.
Western travel now developed swiftly. In 1844 four parties, independ
ently organized, went to Oregon. One consisted of 800 persons and
started from near Bellevue; another started from Independence with 500
to 700 persons. In 1845 the number of travelers increased to between
3,000 and 5,000. At the same time trade, which had been suspended by
Mexico in 1843 because of boundary disputes, was resumed with Santa Fe
on a much greater scale. In 1846 the United States declared war on
Mexico, and the Mormons began their trek to Utah. In 1848 gold was dis
covered in California.
Ninety thousand persons chiefly excited gold-seekers and Mormons
are said to have passed over the two trails in 1849-50, employing every
manner of vehicle. The more affluent rode in carriages. There was even a
wind-wagon, a four-wheeled cart equipped with sails, although it did not
pass beyond the experimental stage. But always the bulk of human and
inanimate freight was conveyed in the stately, lumbering prairie schooners,
arrayed in two to four columns, often miles in length.
Each trail was a natural highway, extending without bridge or grading.
Half of the Santa Fe s 800 miles lay across Kansas; the Oregon, 2,000
miles long, had only from 50 to 200 miles in Kansas, depending on the
starting point. The Santa Fe Trail was the highway of commerce, and
travel was comparatively rapid, six weeks being considered sufficient for
the full journey. The Oregon Trail, called by the Indians the "Great
Medicine Road of the Whites," was the homesteaders highway, and all
the events of domestic life courtships, marriages, births, social and
religious functions occurred in the two to five months required for the
journey.
One trail was as hazardous as the other. Travel on each was attended by
hardship, hunger, disease, and danger. Over both hung the threat of incle
ment weather, especially on the Oregon Trail, where a late start in the
spring meant winter in snowbound mountain passes. The Cimarron cut-
80 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
off of the Santa Fe Trail shortened the distance, but along that route were
50 miles of desert where men were sometimes forced to drink the blood
of their animals.
When the Santa Fe Trail was established, a treaty made with the Osage
Indians gave permission to cross their lands. But no treaty was made with
the Arapahoe, Comanche, Kiowa, and other Plains tribes, who fiercely re
sented the invasion of their last hunting grounds. In 1828 two white men
were killed on the banks of McNees Creek, a tributary of the Canadian
River, and retaliation and counter-retaliations without number followed.
Caravans on each trail moved by day in semi-military formation under the
leadership of a train captain, and rested at night in guarded stockades
formed by their interlocking wagons. Each trail was marked with the
scars of raids and massacres, by human graves, bones of mules and oxen,
household goods and implements, burned and broken wagons.
Still the tide flowed on. In 1858 gold was discovered in Colorado,
bringing a new surge of covered wagons, then emblazoned with "Pike s
Peak or Bust!" Many of the prospectors did "bust" and returned disheart
ened, but for each who returned another always started out.
Meanwhile a new type of travel had appeared on the trails the organ
ized traffic of the overland freight and mail systems, carrying supplies and
news to the settlements in California, Oregon, and Utah. It developed a
surprising efficiency. Russell, Majors & Waddell, chief of the Plains
freighting companies, accumulated a vast amount of equipment. The firm
had a Government contract to transport supplies to the Army in Utah, and
during 1858-59 it carried more than 16,000,000 pounds of freight, using
3,500 large wagons, and approximately 40,000 oxen, 1,000 mules, and
4,000 men. The wagons were made up into "bull-trains," which pro
ceeded on the trails at regular intervals, from 10 to 12 miles apart, and
were manned by crews of "bullwhackers," who urged the oxen on with
picturesque profanity and the pistol-like cracking of long, heavy whips,
called bullwhacks.
The first contract mail service across Kansas started on July i, 1850;
two lines originating at Independence connected with Santa Fe and Salt
Lake City respectively. Mule-drawn wagons operated on a monthly sched
ule, but the time was no faster than that of the freighting system. The de
mand was for news while it was still news, and for more and more speed.
Relay stations, stocked with supplies and fresh animals, were erected along
the trails at intervals of from 10 to 15 miles; and that most dashing of
vehicles, the stagecoach, was introduced. The mail service was increased
from monthly to semi-monthly, and then weekly. Running time was cut
TRANSPORTATION 8l
down Denver was only six days from St. Joseph, Salt Lake City ten days,
and the first through stage from Placerville, California, made the trip in
1 8 days.
But even this was too slow. Impatient settlers clamored for a daily mail;
arid in 1860, Russell, Majors & Waddell instituted the Pony Express. A
herd of wiry mustang ponies was purchased, and a group of hardy, expert,
light-weight riders, was employed. On April 3, mounted riders galloped
simultaneously out of Sacramento and St. Joseph on a giant relay arranged
in individual stints of from 75 to 100 miles each, with a change of
mounts every ten or fifteen miles to assure maximum speed. The pony ex
press from East to West followed the route of the covered wagons from
St. Joseph, Missouri, to the present site of Horton, Kansas. Here it struck
the military road from Fort Leavenworth and Atchison, and continued by
way of Granada and Seneca to Marysville, where it joined the main Ore
gon Trail. The mail went through in ten days, later shortened to nine in
summer, and fifteen days in winter. In March 1861 a daily mail stage was
established on the central route, but the Pony Express continued until the
completion of the overland telegraph in October of that year made it
unnecessary.
By this time the western frontier, long halted at the Missouri River,
had advanced to the middle of Kansas. Indian lands, opened to white
settlers in 1854, had been taken over; towns, roads, and ferries had been
established. The Missouri River, forming the northeastern border of
Kansas, was a regular trade route in the 1850*5 and i86o s, but was com
paratively unimportant to Kansas as a transportation route, since it touched
only a small portion of its territory.
It did, however, permit the extension of steamboat service up the Kansas
River. In April 1854 the Excel, a sturdy stern-wheeler of 79 tons, carried
a cargo of 1,100 barrels of flour to the newly established Fort Riley; and
this was followed by other boats that maintained a more or less regular
schedule.
On April 27, 1855 an emigrant company of 75 left Cincinnati on the
steamboat Hartford. They traveled down the Ohio River, up the Missis
sippi and west on the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, and grounded near the
mouth of the Blue River on June i, 1855. The company had brought with
them ten houses, ready to put up. Three members of the party hired a
wagon and drove to the present site of Junction City; the rest joined with
some other pioneers to found what is now Manhattan.
The next phase in transportation was the coming of the railroads. In
1845 Asa Whitney, the "Father of Pacific Railroads," memorialized Con-
COAL BARGE ON THE MISSOURI (c. 1888)
gress for a charter and land grant to build a line from Chicago to the
Pacific Coast. The feasibility of such a road was then being debated in the
East, but many such petitions were to be presented before Congress took
action. Rival cities each claimed superiority as an eastern terminus; sec
tional jealousy between the North and South made it impossible for either
to agree to a route that would give advantage to the other. Meanwhile,
Kansas impatiently undertook to build its own railroad to connect with
the Hannibal & St. Joseph line advancing to St. Joseph.
In January 1857 the Elwood & Marys ville Railroad was organized and
five miles of track were constructed from Elwood, across the river from
St. Joseph, to Wathena. On April 28, 1860, its first locomotive, the
Albany, was ferried across the Missouri and placed on the tracks. This was
a great occasion. River packets, streaming with bunting, brought hundreds
of visitors; and as the ferry reached the west shore of the river, men and
boys grasped the ropes and pulled the Albany up the steep bank. The
track of this road is now a part of the St. Joseph & Western Division of
the Union Pacific Railroad.
Spurred by the same enthusiasm, other lines quickly materialized. In
1857 the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western was organized and the road
FREIGHT YARDS, KANSAS CITY
84 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
graded to Pawnee, but no rails were laid; the Atchison & Topeka (now
the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe) was chartered; the Chicago, Kansas &
Nebraska (now the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific) was incorporated; and
the Union Pacific Railroad, Eastern Division (which later became the
Kansas Pacific and a part of the Union Pacific) was organized.
The outbreak of the Civil War stopped further independent railway
development, but it speeded up Federal aid as a war measure. On July i,
1862, President Lincoln signed an act "to aid in the construction of a
Railway and Telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific
Ocean," granting alternate odd-numbered sections of land to the amount
of five sections a mile within the limits of ten miles, and a loan of
$16,000 per mile to the builders. Three companies were formed the
Central Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the Kansas Pacific, each to construct
certain portions of the line. But financial difficulties delayed construction;
and Congress passed another act, increasing the land granted to the roads
to odd-numbered sections within ten miles of either side of the track. As
the war was then at its height, the act was designed to bring outlying
military posts into closer connection, as well as to promote development of
the West.
By 1865 the road was well under way, with the Central Pacific working
east over the Sierras, the Union Pacific proceeding west through Nebraska,
and the Kansas Pacific completing the connection from the mouth of the
Kansas, through Manhattan, Junction City, Salina, and Denver, with the
main line at Cheyenne. It took seven years to build the railroad. All mate
rials used by the Union Pacific had to be brought by steamboat and wagon
from the East ; those for the Central Pacific by water to San Francisco and
over the tracks already laid. Virtually every foot of the way was disputed
by Indians, fighting to retain their hunting grounds. But at length, on
May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, north of Salt Lake City, a golden
spike was driven, and the telegraph signalled to a waiting world, "Done!"
While the line from the Missouri to the Pacific was being built, the
Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad (growing out of the earlier Atchi
son and Topeka) was chartered and in 1868 began work at Topeka on a
route roughly corresponding with the old Santa Fe Trail. By 1872 it had
run its tracks to the western border of Kansas and east from Topeka to
complete the connection at Atchison.
By 1882 Kansas had 3,855 miles of railroad track, and 23 years later
(in 1905) it had 8,905 miles. The present mileage is approximately 9,000.
Today, eight main lines (the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe, Union Pacific,
Missouri Pacific, Chicago Rock Island & Pacific, St. Louis & San Fran-
AIRPORT, WICHITA
cisco, Chicago Great Western, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and Kansas City
Southern) converge at its eastern terminals. For 40 years these roads were
the autocrats of Kansas transportation.
But the automobile introduced a new element. Considered as a curiosity
at its first appearance about 1900, it soon became a commercial and do
mestic necessity; and with it came the demand for better roads. In 1937
Kansas had 133,063 miles of roads, of which nearly 9,000 were improved
highways. The State maintained more than 9,000 miles. In the same year
586,685 motor vehicles of all types were registered in the State.
From motor vehicles the next step was air transport. Kansas now has 43
airports 35 private and municipal fields, six U. S. Department of Com
merce fields, and two Army airports. Wichita is a station on the Kansas
City-Dallas route and the Kansas stop for transcontinental service between
Los Angeles and New York. Coffeyville and Chanute are on the route of
the Kansas City-Tulsa line, which is devoted only to mail transportation.
Within the State are 242 privately-owned, non-commercial planes, 165 of
which are licensed.
86 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
In recent years there has been a revival of river transportation. In July
1930, Congress authorized a survey to determine the feasibility of barge
navigation on the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. As a result, barges are now
in operation on the Missouri along the northeastern edge of the State. It
was determined that the Kansas was navigable for barges of as much as
i,ooo-ton capacity for a distance of nine miles from its mouth. In 1937 a
river-rail terminal elevator was completed at Kaw Point above the mouth
of the Kansas. Here much of the grain carried by rail to the terminal is
transferred to barges and shipped to New Orleans for export. These de
velopments indicate that the rivers, which played so great a part in Indian
and pioneer transportation, may regain their importance in the State s
transportation system.
Industry, Commerce
an
1TNDUSTRY was the complement of agriculture during the first fifty
years of settlement in Kansas. This relationship was first evident in
1827 when Daniel Morgan Boone, accompanied by his brother-in-law,
Gabe Phillebert, settled at Stonehouse Creek and tried to introduce the
white man s farming methods to the Indians. Phillebert, a blacksmith, set
up his forge and supplied the crude implements needed by Boone and his
pupils. When not mending or making ring hoes and plowshares, Phille
bert hammered out pots and kettles with which the Indians replaced their
primitive utensils.
Flour milling had its Kansas beginning in 1852 when Matthias Split-
log, a Wyandot Indian, established a horsepower mill near the site of
Kansas City. The first waterpower mill was built five years later beside
Mill Creek in what is now Wabaunsee County. The milling industry de
veloped rapidly thereafter, and by 1860, according to census figures, there
were 62 waterpower mills and a larger number of horsepower mills in the
Territory of Kansas.
In point of income flour milling is today the second largest Kansas in
dustry. In the decade 1927-37 Kansas led all other States five times in the
annual production of flour. The yearly output during that period varied
between 12 and 17 million barrels. According to the 1937 report of the
Bureau of the Census, U. S. Department of Commerce, the wheat storage
capacity of Kansas mills (43,000,000 bushels) exceeds that of any other
State. The main milling centers are at Salina, Topeka, Wichita, Atchison,
Hutchinson, and Kansas City.
In the early years of Statehood the minerals of Kansas were not ex
ploited, although the settlers knew of rich deposits of oil and coal. As
early as 1806 explorers had noted that Kansas Indians wore ornaments of
lead. Seventy years later lead and zinc were discovered near the site of
Galena, and 10,000 miners immigrated to the region. Throughout the
87
88 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
i88o s the Galena field was known as a "poor man s diggings" because of
the many one-acre claims which were worked with windlasses and hand
jigs. Large-scale operations were begun in 1899. The ore production of
Kansas increased steadily in succeeding years, mounting to 28,463 tons
of lead and 126,307 tons of zinc in 1926. A slump set in during the next
decade; the ore output for 1936 totalled 11,409 tons of lead and 79,017
tons of zinc.
A similar decline, caused largely by the increasing use of gas and oil for
fuel, has been noted in the coal industry. Following the opening of the
first mine in 1866, the annual output increased with the population,
reaching a peak of 7,561,947 tons in 1917. During 1936 the 77 mines in
Kansas produced only 3,147,225 tons; in the following year 61 mines
produced about 2,000,000 tons. But the dwindling part played by coal,
lead, and zinc in the State s economy has been more than counterbalanced
by the development of oil resources. A. D. Searl, a surveyor, found oil
oozing from the earth near the site of Paola in 1855. On returning to his
home in Conneautville, Pennsylvania, Searl informed Dr. G. W. Brown
of his discovery. Dr. Brown came to Kansas in 1859, verified Searl s find,
and organized a company which leased thirty thousand acres in Miami
County. In 1860 the company drilled three wells. The first two were "dry
holes," the last struck oil and salt water at 270 feet.
Throughout the first quarter century of its development, Kansas oil had
a small intra-state sale as a lubricant. The wells were shallow and in some
instances the oil was obtained by merely skimming it from the surface of
streams. By 1889 the annual production of petroleum averaged five hun
dred barrels. In that year the Kansas legislature recognized the presence of
the new industry by enacting a law that required the inspection of petro
leum sold as an illuminating agent.
Kansas oil was vigorously exploited during the first decade of the pres
ent century. Wells that pumped one thousand barrels a day were "shot"
in Montgomery County in 1903. The annual production of the State soon
reached 3,000,000 barrels, at which point it hovered for more than a
decade. Stimulated by the opening of the Butler County field, the Kansas
output for 1916 climbed to 8,000,000 barrels and rose to 36,500,000
barrels the following year.
During 1937 the 18,000 wells in Kansas produced 69,000,000 barrels
of oil. The oil fields extend south from Kansas City crescent- wise to the
Oklahoma line, and thence northward through the central part of the
State. The wells in the eastern part are shallow "strippers" which yield
*y
-
.
^**"fjir
> ** i^
OIL WELLS NEAR WICHITA
between 10 and 12 barrels daily. Those in central Kansas pump as much
as 2,250 barrels per day. Petroleum refining has become the third most
important Kansas industry.
Nelson Acres, an oil prospector, struck a pocket of gas near lola in
1873. His discovery was first utilized in 1889 by the city of Paola, and
seven other communities installed gas systems in the following year. By
1925 approximately 27,000,000 cubic feet of gas were consumed an
nually. This quantity was more than doubled in the next decade, amount
ing to 57,125,000 cubic feet during 1935.
About two hundred gas wells were drilled in Kansas between 1932-35.
Gasoline extraction from natural gas amounted to 36,900,000 gallons dur
ing 1936. The largest pocket of natural gas is the Hugoton field at the
southwestern corner of Kansas, and smaller pockets exist throughout the
oil producing area. One of the three helium plants in the country is at
Dexter. When first discovered in 1907, Dexter residents, unaware of the
incombustible nature of helium, piped it to their homes and, by reason of
90 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
the natural gas it contained, managed to ignite it for cooking and illu
mination.
The total mineral production of Kansas during 1937 was valued at
$156,000,000. It included gas, oil, coal, lead, zinc, sand, gravel, stone,
chat, pumice, cement, and salt. The latter mineral was discovered near
Hutchinson in 1887 by Ben Blanchard, an oil prospector. Exploitation
began in 1888 at the rate of 500 barrels per day. At present (1938)
Kansas is third among the States in the production of salt. The largest
mines are at Hutchinson; others are at Lyons, Anthony, Kanopolis, and
Little River.
Several decades before the first oil well was drilled in Kansas, petro
leum scooped from the tops of pools was customarily used to grease the
wheels of freighters traveling the Santa Fe Trail. Pack trains began to
follow this route in the i82o s, and by 1860 about 3,500 men were em
ployed in its commerce.
Following the completion of the Santa Fe Railway in the 1 870*5, the
Santa Fe Trail fell into disuse and its Kansas length was subsequently
overgrown with wheat. But the trail left its mark on the economic pattern
of the State. According to business analysts, the commerce of Kansas still
flows in a southwest direction, and the trade area of a Kansas city gen
erally extends west and south, seldom north and east.
Of later origin than the Santa Fe Trail, but of greater economic im
portance, was the Chisholm Trail, named for the halfbreed Cherokee who
in 1865 marked off its route with the wheels of his trade wagon (see
WICHITA). The Chisholm Trail was the main outlet for Texas cattle in
the 1870*5. During the two decades in which the trail was used, about
5,000,000 longhorns were herded over it to shipping points in Kansas.
Meat packing plants were consequently established at Salina, Kansas City,
and other communities. The first meat ever transported in refrigerator cars
was shipped from Salina in 1872. In point of income meat packing is
now the largest Kansas industry. The average output of the packing plants
at Wichita and Kansas City is valued annually at more than $125,000,000.
In 1937 Kansas had 36 insurance companies, 104 national farm loan
agencies, 140 building and loan associations, and 515 state and private
banks. Public utility corporations included 4 in water, 23 in electricity,
and 36 in gas. There were 338 Kansas telephone companies.
According to the 1935 U. S. Census of Manufactures, Kansas had
1,508 manufacturing plants whose total output that year was valued at
$468,690,290. Excluding the three major products already named meat
packing, flour milling, and petroleum refining the largest items were, in
KANSAS BEEF
the order listed, butter, printing and publishing, railroad repair shops,
wholesale poultry dressing and packing, stock and fowl feeds, machinery,
cement, salt, ice, and structural and ornamental metal work. The same
census enumerated 4,621 wholesale establishments, 9,290 service establish
ments, and 27,433 retail stores.
Contemporary industries include the manufacture of trailers at Augusta,
airplanes at Wichita and Kansas City, strawboard at Hutchinson, garden
tractors at Galesburg, snow plows at Wamego, and agrol a gasoline that
( ontains alcohol extracted from grains at Atchison. Pipe organs are man
ufactured at Lawrence, beet sugar at Garden City, paving material at
Moline, locomotive parts at Atchison, linseed oil and linseed stock feed
at Fredonia, bean-picking machines at Cawker City, carbon black at
Hickok, stoves at Leavenworth and Wichita, furniture at Garnett and
Leavenworth, soap at Kansas City, steel fixtures at Ottawa and Topeka,
ceramic products at Havana, and oil field machinery at Wichita and Inde
pendence. Of its raw foodstuffs, Kansas ships wheat in the greatest quan
tity, one-third of the average annual crop of 170,000,000 bushels going
to outer-state markets.
92 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
During 1937 about 228,000 part and fulltime industrial workers were
employed in Kansas. Of this number an average of 44,000 were employed
in trade, 42,000 in manufacturing, 38,000 in transportation, 19,000 in
mining and quarrying, 12,000 in service industries, and 11,000 in com
munication and utilities. The average annual wage in the foregoing in
dustries amounted to $1,233.05.
Kansas industry was, until the second decade of the present century,
operated largely on the open shop plan. In the period after the Civil War
most of the trade unions in the State reflected the general conditions of
the country as a whole, and were mainly local organizations. The forma
tion of national unions was slow.
When the depression of 1873 swept over the country, prices and profits
plunged downward. Employers began a tremendous drive to lower wages,
which in turn brought about a stiffer resistance on the part of the workers.
Labor fought back with the only weapon it had, the strike. This period,
therefore, was one of many bitter strikes, among which those of the rail
road workers in 1877 were the most outstanding.
The first strike in Kansas occurred in 1877 when employees of the
Santa Fe Railway joined a Nation-wide walkout to obtain higher wages.
The railroad shops at Topeka, Emporia, and Lawrence were peacefully
picketed, but Governor George T. Anthony immediately dispatched militia
companies to those cities. The citizens of Emporia termed the use of
troops an insult to their persons and their city. The militia was thoroughly
discredited when one of their members accidentally shot and killed the
Reverend O. J. Shannon, an Emporia minister. Governor Anthony sub
sequently withdrew the troops and the strike was settled without further
disorder.
The first legislation designed to benefit Kansas industrial workers was
enacted during the term of Governor John A. Martin (1885-89). The
Governor was a member of a typographical union and in sympathy with
the general policy of the Knights of Labor, which occupied an outstand
ing position in the labor movement of that period. In the first year of his
governorship the legislature created a bureau of labor and industrial
statistics, the establishment of which had been advocated in 1884 by the
General Assembly of the Knights of Labor. The same legislature also
passed a bill requiring the wage of industrial workers to be paid monthly
in "lawful money of the United States." Near the close of the session,
however, this bill was all but abrogated by an amendment sponsored by
groups that feared to place any restraint on the industrial development of
the State.
INDUSTRY, COMMERCE AND LABOR 93
Two months after Governor Martin had been inaugurated, railroad
shopworkers at Parsons and Atchison walked out in response to a strike
called in Missouri, Kansas, and Texas to resist wage reductions and in-
( reased hours proposed by the Missouri Pacific Railway. The railroad offi-
cials immediately telegraphed for troops to guard company property.
After a survey of the strikers picketing methods Governor Martin refused
to send the militia, noting, incidentally, that the legal right of a railroad
official to request the use of troops had not been established by any Kansas
5 tatute.
Governor Martin twice proposed that the strike be arbitrated by a dis
interested committee; officials of the railroad company twice declined. On
March 13, 1885, however, H. M. Hoxie, vice-president of the Missouri
Pacific Railway, asked Governor Martin to confer at St. Louis, Missouri,
with the board of railroad commissioners, the Governor of Missouri, and
a representative of the railroad company. The Governor promptly as
sented. The company granted the demands of the workers and the strike
ended.
The snags encountered in mediating the railroad strike impelled Gov
ernor Martin to propose the creation of legal machinery to expedite the
settlement of future industrial disputes. At a special session in January
1886 he asked the legislature to establish a tribunal of voluntary arbitra
tion. A bill was accordingly passed on February 18, empowering the dis
trict county courts, upon the petition of employer or employee, to set up a
c ourt of voluntary arbitration over which an umpire appointed by the dis
trict judge would preside.
Kansas, in common with the Nation, resounded with industrial war
fare throughout 1886. Strikes occurred among the coal miners, the rail
roadmen, and the smelting and refinery workers. Most serious of these was
the railroad strike, which began on March i in Marshal, Texas, upon the
discharge of a foreman of the woodworkers in the Texas and Pacific car
shops. It affected Parsons on March 6, Kansas City on March 8, and
Atchison on March 10. All traffic on the Missouri Pacific Railway came to
a dead halt. Shop machinery was destroyed, several trains were damaged,
and one was derailed, resulting in the death of the fireman and a brake-
man.
Attempts to have the strike settled in Governor Martin s court of vol
untary arbitration failed. The situation took an ugly turn at Parsons, fol
lowing the issuance of an injunction which enjoined the strikers from
interfering with the traffic of the Missouri Pacific Railway. The injunction
was generally ignored and Governor Martin was besieged with requests
94 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
for the militia. Reluctantly, and only after all hope of arbitration had
been abandoned, the Governor detailed the First Regiment to Parsons on
April i. A "Law and Order League" was also organized in the city. No
further efforts to stop railroad traffic were made, and the strike was lost.
In his campaign for re-election in 1887, Governor Martin was censured
by industry for his delay in sending the militia, and by industrial workers
for having sent the militia. The court of voluntary arbitration, basically a
just and democratic principle, was discredited because of its failure to
solve the strikes of 1886. The Governor, nevertheless, was re-elected by a
considerable majority. At the legislative session of 1887 laws were passed
to further the organization of co-operatives, and to insure the wage-payment
of miners in "lawful money."
In 1893 the extensive industrial depression throughout the Nation also
affected Kansas labor. As in the past, the employers began a general offen
sive against wages, and the workers fought back with strikes.
The mining area in southeastern Kansas, known as the "little Balkans,"
was the source of prolonged labor unrest throughout the period. The
miners had very real cause for complaint. They mined the so-called "long
ton" for a bare subsistence wage that was, until the enforcement of the
legislative act of 1887, often paid in company scrip. On July 21, 1893,
following the rejection of their demands by the mine operators, the re
cently formed unit of the United Mine Workers called a strike. The
sheriff of Cherokee County telegraphed for the militia. Governor Lewel-
ling, first of Kansas two Populist governors, assembled ten militia com
panies on the advice of the attorney general, and held them ready to
patrol the strike area. The miners and operators, however, adjusted their
difficulties by July 25, and the troops were disbanded.
The larger railroad companies stubbornly resisted the unionization of
Kansas railroadmen during the 1890*5. Since the open shop preference of
the railroad officials was supported by public opinion and the general
press, the railroad companies were the more powerful in their disputes
with employees. After the 1894 Pullman strike, led by the American Rail
way Union, one railroad company announced that jobs would not be re
stored to those who had struck. A number of men thus blacklisted ap
pealed to the United States District Court, the judge of which appointed
an investigating committee. The committee subsequently reported that "it
is difficult to understand what greater offence an employee could commit
than to refuse to work and still insist that no one could take his place."
The court thereupon ruled against the blacklisted men, but the effect of
the decision was nullified in 1897 when the Populist-Democratic legisla-
COAL MINER
ture passed a law prohibiting discrimination and the publication of black
lists.
The trade union movement was at a low ebb at the beginning of the
twentieth century. The American Federation of Labor became active in
Kansas in 1907 but, since it operated largely on a craft basis, the masses
of unskilled workers were left unorganized. Kansas labor, through the
Western Federation of Miners, was also represented in the Industrial
Workers of the World, which was organized in 1905 as a protest against
the slow progress of the conservative trade unions.
96 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
The post-War unrest of industrial workers affected all of Kansas in the
autumn of 1919 when the United Mine Workers in the little Balkans *
joined the Nation-wide strike for increased wages and a six-hour day. As
the strike lengthened, the weather became very cold and a shortage of
fuel seemed imminent. Governor Henry J. Allen threw the mines into a
temporary State receivership. About a thousand workers, many of them
college students, were hired to mine the Crawford County "strippers"
under the protection of National guardsmen.
Governor Allen called a special legislative session at which a criminal
syndicalism and sabotage act was passed, and the Court of Industrial Re
lations was established. The court consisted of three judges, appointed by
the Governor, who were empowered to investigate, try, and decide dis
putes involving "essential industries." The court regulations were pre
sumably intended to safeguard public welfare through the compulsory re
moval of all obstructions to production. Labor was to be permanently
appeased by its right to appeal against low wages, long hours, and dis
criminatory practices of employers. Industry was to be benefited by Sec
tion 15, which forbade picketing and boycotting, and by Section 17, which
deprived labor of the right to strike. Violators of Section 17 were to be
penalized by a jail sentence of from one to two years and/or fines that
ranged from one to five thousand dollars.
Organized labor saw in the Kansas Court of Industrial Relations a
crystallization of undemocratic forces. Samuel Gompers, president of the
American Federation of Labor, sounded the tocsin with "Kansas cannot
legislate men into serfdom. Kansas cannot put upon her statute books a
law that will compel men to submit to involuntary servitude." Governor
Allen defended the court on all fronts. More than 40,000 persons were
turned away, when he and Samuel Gompers debated the issue in Carnegie
Hall, New York City, on May 28, 1920.
Since the Court of Industrial Relations was the first and only attempt to
enforce compulsory arbitration of labor disputes, its operations were
closely followed by the Nation s economists, union leaders, and indus
trialists. What was publicized as the first case of its kind in America
occurred in November 1920 when seven Topeka mill operators were cited
to appear before the court and "show cause why men are being laid off
. . . and production curtailed without permission of the court." In the
previous year the Topeka mill workers had struck for higher pay and lost,
their jobs being assumed by non-union men. The case against the mill
operators aroused great interest, since many believed that a precedent for
industrial stabilization might be established.
INDUSTRY, COMMERCE AND LABOR 97
The mill operators were not placed under oath, and the "trial" was in
the nature of a formal debate. The testimony amounted to the fact that
seasonal adjustments of production and employment were required to
make flour milling a profitable pursuit. It was further asserted that flour
milling was strongly influenced by out-of-State factors. To this the court
agreed, dismissing the case as beyond its jurisdiction.
About 6,500 Kansas members of the Federated Shop Crafts walked out
in July 1922 in protest against wage cuts proposed by the U. S. Railroad
labor Board. Militia companies were detailed to the strike centers. Strike
breakers were employed in several instances, and the strike was ultimately
lost. A large part of the Kansas public, meanwhile, sided with the strikers.
Many merchants placed cards in their windows which read: "We are for
a living wage and fair working conditions. We are for the striking work
men 100 percent." Attorney General Richard J. Hopkins, in accordance
with Section 15 of the regulations of the Court of Industrial Relations,
declared that such cards were a form of picketing and therefore punish
able by law.
William Allen White, Emporia editor and longtime friend of Governor
Allen, placed a sign in the window of his printing shop that read: "We
are for the striking workmen 49 percent." White was thereupon signaled
cut for "picketing" and held for trial, but the case was dismissed on
December 8, 1922. "If I was within the law in contending for the right
of free utterance for the public wholly outside the controversy," White
said, "I should not have been subjected to a shanghied arrest. ... I was
ku kluxed by a court that did not have the guts to pull out their shirt
tails and give a ku klux parade."
Employees of the Wolf Packing Company, threatened by a wage cut,
appeared before the Court of Industrial Relations, presented their case,
and received an order granting an increase in pay. The officials of the
packing company appealed to the State supreme court which upheld the
decision. They then appealed to the United States Supreme Court which,
in a decision written by Chief Justice Taft in 1923, held that the statute
creating the Court of Industrial Relations was unconstitutional because it
empowered the court to fix a minimum wage, pending the solution of a
labor dispute. Two years later it was abolished by the legislature.
Kansas experienced 34 shortlived local strikes throughout the decade
ending in 1935. In that year, however, the members of the Mine, Mill and
Smelter Workers International Union ceased work in the lead and zinc
fields at the southeast corner of the State. The strikers were replaced by
non-union workers who were subsequently organized in a company union
98 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
known as the Tri-State Metal Mine and Smelter Workers Union, or, more
commonly, the Blue Card Union.
The feud between the striking workers and the Blue Card unionists
smoldered for about two years, and then burst into flame when the Com
mittee for Industrial Organization undertook to aid the Mine, Mill and
Smelter Workers International Union. On April 10, 1937, several men
distributing leaflets for the CIO at a smelter in Joplin, Missouri, were
seized by Blue Card unionists and severely beaten. On the following day
about 5,000 members of the Blue Card Union met at Picher, Oklahoma,
armed themselves with clubs and pickhandles, dispersed a meeting of
CIO organizers and wrecked the local hall of the Mine, Mill and Smelter
Workers International Union.
About 500 Blue Card unionists then traveled by automobile to Treece,
Kansas, where they demolished another hall of the CIO union. The cara
van of cars continued to Galena, Kansas, where forewarned members of
the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers International Union had barricaded
their meeting hall. The mob formed before the hall, brandishing clubs.
Firing broke out, and nine men were shot, one fatally. In the ensuing
melee the hall was wrecked and the records of the union stolen. Twenty-
five members of the Blue Card Union and ten members of the CIO were
arrested and released on bond. A week after the riot occurred, six thou
sand members of the Blue Card Union voted to join the American Fed
eration of Labor, with which organization they were subsequently affiliated.
The Kansas units of the CIO and A. F. of L. have not generally en
gaged in inter-union competition. As though a mutual agreement existed
between both organizations, they have maintained and respected separate
spheres of activity. The A. F. of L. has grown to 500 locals with a mem
bership of about 75,000 in the State. The CIO counts approximately
25,000 members among Kansas workers and has concentrated its member
ship drive among oil, stove, furniture, packing plant, filling station, soap
and glycerine, clay and pottery, paper and box workers. The United Mine
Workers of America, which is now affiliated with the CIO has approx
imately 100 locals in the State. The one strike called in Kansas by the
CIO a five-day sit-down at the Kansas City plant of Armour & Company
was peacefully settled without arbitration. The Kansas Workers Alli
ance, an organization of the unemployed, has an estimated membership
of 4,500.
During the past few years labor has made considerable gains by the
passing of several legislative measures. An industrial hygiene section in
the division of sanitation of the State board of health was established in
INDUSTRY, COMMERCE AND LABOR 99
February 1936. Since its organization this section has been conducting
surveys of industries in order to determine what potential exposure hazards,
if any, exist in the industries, and to study the means of eliminating such
occupational hazards as do exist. Silicosis, an occupational hazard existing
in the Tri-State area (parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri) is not
compensable under Kansas laws, and it is obvious that the organization
of an industrial hygiene section means a great deal to the workers of the
State.
The 1937 legislature passed laws covering all sections of the Federal
social security program; ratified the Federal child-labor amendment, and
adopted an unemployment compensation act. The 1938 session of the
legislature revived the State s former minimum wage law.
Considerable progress is also to be noted in the relationship between
the industrial and agricultural workers. Until comparatively recent years,
I he average Kansan was little interested in labor relationships unless they
directly affected him. Except for the Populist movement of the i88o s,
(here had been no concerted action on the part of the farmer and indus
trial worker and Populism in Kansas was largely an agrarian movement.
In the last few years, however, a definite movement for joint action by
farmers and industrial workers has been developing. Several meetings of
the Farmers Union, the United Cannery, Agricultural Packing, and Allied
Workers, and Labor s Non-Partisan League were held recently and pro
grams for concerted action were drawn up. Representatives from Kansas
participated. Several other such conferences with representatives of or
ganized labor resulted in a greater understanding of each other s prob
lems and increasing co-operation between the Farmers Union and organ
ized labor. A notable example of such farmer-labor co-operation was the
calling off of an impending Colorado beet workers strike, largely through
the efforts of agricultural labor union representatives and National Farmers
Union officials. It is also of interest to note that the farm program resolu
tion of the CIO convention, recently held in Pittsburg, cited the agree
ment recently drawn up and ratified in Colorado, under which the
Farmers Union will organize beet growers, and the CIO cannery and
agricultural workers will organize the beet workers, both to guarantee
mutual recognition and collective bargaining.
>>>>>>>>>>>)>>>>>
FOLK tales and folk songs, compounded of dreams, idle imaginings,
and wish fulfillment, are usually based on the prosaic doings of. men
who "earn their living by the sweat of their brow." In Kansas the first
workers were the farmer and the cowboy. Within the short span of three
decades their not so heroic figures were draped with a spangled mantle of
lore and legend.
The present century has not dealt kindly with the farmer. His legends
are all but obsolete, and his beliefs have been pared away by the profes
sors at colleges of agriculture. Even the farm-bred bards who twang guitars
before radio microphones prefer "I m Headin for the Last Roundup" to
"Turkey in the Straw" or "Father Put the Cows Away." Agronomists have
shown the absurdity of planting crops by the phases of the moon; mete
orologists have disproved many hitherto infallible weather omens; and
bacteriologists have dispelled the hobgoblins who once merrily soured
cream and addled eggs. Nature, in short, has ceased to be mysterious and
the farmer has become a mere workman.
The cowboy, however, is well on the way to becoming a figure of mag
nificent proportions. Bowlegged and gaunt, he stands as the apotheosis of
manly perfection. Songs, novels, movies, magazines, and operettas have
made the least inquiring of us well acquainted with his extraordinary
courage, unfailing gallantry, and uncanny skill with gun or lariat. The
farmer, meanwhile, sits stolidly on his tractor, bereft of romance and ad
venture.
Time was when farming in Kansas was not without perils. The story
goes that Lem Blanchard went forth one afternoon in mid-July to inspect
his cornfield in the Republic Valley. He scaled a young stalk to overlook
the forest-like field and from its top was able to see into the next county.
When he turned to descend he was horrified to find that the stalk was
growing upward faster than he could scramble down. For two days he
made back-breaking efforts to reach the ground. At last, to keep him from
starving to death, kind neighbors who had tracked him to the foot of the
towering stalk shot Lem dead.
100
FOLKLORE IOI
There are those who say that Lem was rescued by a balloonist but that
seems improbable. If Lem had not perished on the cornstalk, surely other
of his adventures among the gigantic squash, pumpkins, and taters on his
farm would have been recorded. Lem would have saved himself, if the
corn had been mature. Another farmer caught in a similar predicament
subsisted on raw ears of corn. When the cornstalk ceased growing, en
abling him to descend, he found that forty bushels of corncobs had accu
mulated below his perch.
The enormous stalks of corn were of course grown on extremely large
fields. There was one man whose field was so wide that by the time the
mortgage was recorded on the west side, the mortgage on the east side had
come due. The hired man and hired girl, following their wedding, went
out to milk the cows that grazed on the west side. When they returned
they had a child one year old.
The winds that swept across the big farms often reached hurricane ve
locity. The ducks feathers were invariably blown onto the chickens, and
the chickens feathers were invariably blown onto the ducks. Frequently
the wind scooped the cellar from beneath the house but left the house in
tact, hoisted the well from under the pump but left the pump intact, and
carried the whole farm away but left the mortgage intact. An inexperi
enced dog dared to bark at an approaching "twister." The ensuing entry of
air turned the animal inside out.
The grasshoppers that ravaged the big farms were as large as mules.
Champing huge mandibles and lashing great antennae, the monster insects
deliberately bullied the hogs, cows, and sheep. Nothing escaped their vora
cious appetites. Wagons and well platforms were favored tidbits. Armed
with axe handles, buggywhips, and pitchforks, the gargantuan hoppers
fought viciously in fence corners for the last ear of corn. After devouring
the crops they would insolently pick their teeth on the barbs of the barbed-
wire fence.
The belief that "rain follows the plow" was held by many a Kansas
farmer in the i88o s and 90*5. When a drought was persistent, profes
sional rainmakers were frequently enlisted to coax the reluctant clouds. A
popular method of producing rain consisted of killing a snake and "hang
ing it belly-side up on a fence." In the great drought of the 1890 $ an all
but despairing Bohemian farmer ruefully told a passerby: "I ve killed
three snakes and hung them on the fence, and each time we got a sprin
kle of rain. If I could find enough snakes we d get plenty rain."
The belief that dead snakes suspended belly-side up on a fence would
bring rain is said to have originated before the invention of barbed-wire
102 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
fences in 1874. When laid on a rail or stone fence, rigor mortis would in
variably cause the snake to twist over onto its belly and thus prevent the
"charm" from being followed to the letter. Barbed- wire fences enabled
Kansan farmers to penetrate a dorsal segment and so fix the snake in the
prescribed position. Thousands of snakes were properly strung on barbed-
wire fences, their white-scaled bellies glistening in the brassy sun-glare.
But, strange to relate, Nature seldom reacted favorably to the sacrifice of
serpents.
The lore-manufacturers of the cattle trails scorned to imitate the ex
travagances born of the farmers hopes and fears about mysterious Nature.
The cowboy was a man in full, a rootin tootin son-of-a-gun, tougher than
the leather of his saddle. Had he met a "big wind," he would have gal
loped dead against it; had he encountered a giant grasshopper, he would
have peppered the insect with his six-shooter. Indeed, the ordinary activi
ties of the cowboy out-fictioned the farmers folk fiction. The puncher
rode hard, shot fast, drank copiously, and, as verified by subsequent ex
humations, often died with his boots on. In his midst moved "Bat" Mas-
terson, "Wild Bill" Hickok, "Doc" Holliday, "Big Nose Kate," and other
incredible persons.
On arriving at Newton, Wichita, Abilene, and other Kansas cow towns
the pleasure-starved cowpunchers engaged in mad bouts of drinking, gam
bling, and dancehall cavorting. Sometimes they "painted the town red" by
galloping through the streets and firing their "shooting irons" into the air.
At Medicine Lodge the cowboys held horse-races down the main street ; at
night they built bonfires and took turns riding forward to see whose horse
would run nearest the flames. The old saying "There is no Sunday west of
Newton and no God west of Pueblo" aptly described the Kansas cow
towns.
The cowboy s speech was crisp and pungent. The farmer was a "nester"
or "drylander," and an inquisitive person an "eyeballer." Courting was
termed "sittin her," traveling by a circuitous route was known as "anti-
godlin ," and to make your best effort was "to cut a rusty." The phrase
"wild and woolly" is said to have originated in Dodge City, where the
stock answer to a query about one s past was: "I came up the Chisholm
Trail with the buffalo wild and woolly."
Each cow town had its badmen who, if court records are reliable, were
mighty, mighty bad. When badman Jack Coulter was killed at Coronado
in 1887, his trigger finger is said to have jerked desperately for a half
hour after he died. The badmen had a sadistic sense of humor. Sometimes
they made citizens dance by shooting at their feet. Or again, by way of
FOLKLORE 103
mild diversion, a badman tested his aim by shooting through the hat of a
passerby. One such Wiliam Tell in Gray County, whose hand was un
steady from drink, pierced both the hat and head of his target.
The hardboiled, devil-may-care attitude of the cowboy shielded a shy
brooding nature. His fatalistic philosophy was often a social pose that he
upheld publicly but disavowed in private. That the cowboy was deeply
concerned with an untimely end, whether it found him booted or abed, is
strongly indicated by his songs and ballads. "Sam Bass," "Mustang Gray,"
"The Cowboy s Dream," and "The Dying Cowboy" evidence a preoccu
pation with death, which is at direct odds with the generally accepted pic
ture of a swashbuckling puncher with two guns on his hip and an "itch
ing trigger finger." That the cowboy was also concerned about an afterlife
is illustrated in the following:
THE DIM NARROW TRAIL
Last night as I lay on the prairie
Looking up at the stars in the sky
I wondered if ever a cowboy
Would go to that sweet by and by.
The trail to that fair mystic region
Is narrow and dim all the way,
While the road that leads to perdition
Is posted and blazed all the way.
They say there will be a grand round-up,
Where cowboys like cattle must stand,
To be cut by the riders of judgment
Who are posted and know every brand.
Perhaps there will be a stray cowboy
Unbranded by anyone nigh
Who ll be cut by the riders of judgment
And shipped to the sweet by and by.
Cowboy sports and customs are frequently revived in Kansas by "Cow
boy Rodeo" and "Frontier Day" celebrations. Pioneer times are regularly
recalled at various old settlers gatherings held annually throughout the
State. Spelling bees, bean suppers, oyster suppers, box socials, amateur
"nigger minstrels," and similar old-fashioned amusements are occasionally
revived as novelties by clubs and church societies.
The Kansas reservoir of superstitions is fed by streams from the general
pool of American taboos and beliefs. A small percentage of the popula
tion believe that a tipped new moon presages frost, that surface crops
should be planted in the light of the moon and underground crops in the
dark of the moon, that bad luck follows spilt salt or a broken mirror, and
104 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
that misfortune may be warded off by knocking on wood. Beliefs prevalent
among Kansas children include "stamping a white horse," the ubiquitous
"bread and butter" incantation used in passing on opposite sides of a post,
and the performance of "thumbs" when two persons say the same word
simultaneously.
The contemporary Kansas Negro has discarded his heritage of Southern
superstitions and acquired in varying degree those of his white neighbor.
Many still believe that if the church bell gives an after toll, a member of
the congregation will soon die ; that bad luck will come if you re struck by
a broom; and that a sleeping person will tell his dreams if his hand is
placed in cold water. The last is said to be a fundamental and useful-
tenet in the credo of wives.
During the last two decades the imaginations of rural Kansans have
been relatively lax in populating empty houses and lonely lanes with
"hants" and creatures of the underworld. Several such manifestations are
reported periodically, however, in the same regions. Greeley County has its
Ghost of White Woman Creek, a white-clad shade who, according to leg
end, drowned herself in the creek when she found her lover lying dead on
its bank. A "giant panther" is said to inhabit the farming district along a
draw northwest of Norton. Tales of the beast s fiery eyes and hideous
screeching are intermittently revived. Since the 1890*5 residents of Wal
lace County have reported seeing a strange light bob across the country
side. Some assert that the light is the ghost of a man murdered in the
1 890*5, but the more literal minded explain the phenomenon as a phos
phorescent glow arising from decaying bones on the prairie.
<-<<<(<<<<<<<<<<<<< -fr >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
schools of Kansas have been locally supported and, for the most
part, locally controlled since the earliest days. Until 1937 when the
State legislature established a State Aid Fund for the benefit of elementary
schools in need of additional support, the State government performed
neither of these functions except for the State supported institutions of
higher learning and the educational institutions for defectives. Yet Kan-
sans generally have been united by faith in the power of learning to make
mankind industrious, virtuous, and wise. With this faith the pioneers built
rheir first humble schoolhouses of logs and sod. And because of this belief
450,000 students attend the universities, colleges, junior colleges, high,
and common schools of Kansas today.
The first schools were religious missions among the Indians. Approxi
mately twenty-five were established in eastern and central Kansas between
i:he i82o s, when the Presbyterian Neosho Mission was opened in what is
now Neosho County, and the late 1850*5. Religion and education went
hand in hand at these frontier outposts of civilization. Members of peace
ful Indian tribes came from far and near to the mission schools and often
attended classes with the white children. They learned reading, writing,
farming methods, and simple health measures. Ottawa University is a di
rect outgrowth of the Ottawa Baptist Mission founded by the Reverend
[otham Meeker in 1837, and Highland College at Highland had its origin
in the Kickapoo mission established by the Presbyterian Church in 1856.
The first free schools in Kansas were held in private homes, in village
stores, or wherever it was expedient. If the settlement boasted no teacher,
a housewife with "learning" was drafted to take charge. School texts were
scarce and the children learned their lessons from whatever books their
parents happened to have. Sometimes this was the family Bible or a worn
volume of Shakespeare, occasionally a copy of an eastern newspaper, and
not infrequently an almanac.
In 1855 members of the first Territorial legislature adopted the Mis-
j;ouri statutes for use in the Kansas Territory. These provided for the es-
105
106 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
tablishment of public schools "free and open to whites." When the first:
Free State legislature met at Lawrence in 1858, these laws were revised.
Possessing the deep-rooted Yankee conception of schools as neighbor
hood affairs, the lawmakers created a system of school districts admin
istered by county superintendents and a Territorial superintendent of
schools. To the county superintendent they gave the power of creating and
altering the school districts; the individual districts, with their personnel
and tax problems, were put under the control of local school boards. For
the upkeep of the new school districts, the lawmakers levied a tax upon
real and personal property, requiring each district to maintain schools en
tirely from its tax-derived revenues.
Each succeeding legislature has added to the Kansas school laws until
today the system is a patchwork. The State constitution, drawn up in 1859,
provided for "equal educational advantages for white and colored," and
for "males and females alike." An additional clause provided for a State
university at some "eligible and sensible point," and for months after the
admittance of the State into the Union the problem of location agitated
many ambitious Kansas towns.
The University of Kansas was founded at Lawrence in 1865. Accord
ing to the original plans, the institution was to have been divided into
male and female branches the latter separate from the college proper and
taught by women. But when classes began in 1866, with fifty men and
five women enrolled, facilities were so limited that segregation was im
practicable, and the university opened as the first co-educational institution
of higher learning in Kansas.
Education at college and university level, in name at least, was a matter
of great importance to early Kansans. Among the New England pioneers
who came West to emancipate "bleeding Kansas" were many ardent young
college graduates. Education in their minds ranked next in power to the
press and the church, and they envisioned seats of learning comparable to
the famous universities of the Eastern Seaboard and of Europe. Eastern
churches hastened to strengthen their hold upon the new country by
founding colleges, competing with town promoters for choice locations and
subsidies. Eighteen universities and ten colleges were chartered by the
Kansas legislature between 1858 and 1863. Only Highland College, at
Highland, Baker University, at Baldwin, and St. Benedict s College, at
Atchison, survive.
The Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science was es
tablished at Manhattan as the Kansas State Agricultural College. Under
the terms of the Morrill Act, approved by President Lincoln in 1862, Kan-
THE CAMPUS, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, LAWRENCE
sas was granted 90,000 acres of land for the founding of an institution
"related to agricultural and mechanical arts." The institution opened its
doors as a Federal land-grant college in 1863.
The State school for the blind, at Kansas City, the State school for the
deaf, at Olathe, and the Emporia State Teachers College, at Emporia, were
established by legislative action in the i86o s. A compulsory education
law, for children between the ages of eight and fourteen, was passed in
1874. As part of the prohibition movement, provision was made in 1885
for courses in hygiene, "to be taught with special reference to the effects
of alcoholic and narcotic stimulants."
Up to this time Kansas had followed the example of eastern States in
school legislation, but in the i88o s the State legislature took an independ
ent step by providing for a State-wide system of county high schools in
counties of more than 5,000 population. The first was built at Chapman
in 1889. Within a few years legislatures in almost every State in the Union
had enacted similar bills.
In the late 1890*5 Kansas took the initiative by adding manual training
108 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
courses to the Pittsburg public school curriculum. By the end of the cen
tury, courses in sewing, cooking, and woodworking had been introduced
into the better-equipped schools in towns throughout the State. The Pitts-
burg State Teachers College, established by a legislative act of 1903, pio
neered in preparing manual training teachers. In the previous year the
legislature also founded Fort Hays State College, which occupies a portion
of the land once included in the old Fort Hays Military Reservation.
With the turn of the century, enrollment soared and the construction of
school buildings boomed. The new and larger plants contained audito
riums, gymnasiums, theaters, swimming pools, and libraries. Vocational
agriculture and home economics appeared in their curricula as a result of
the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, providing Federal support for vocational
education. The so-called practical subjects stenography, bookkeeping, and
business correspondence were stressed. The number of school districts
multiplied with the organization of new counties until more than 9,000 of
them were spread over the State.
There has been a gradual trend toward centralization of education and
consolidation of schools. A State school commission was created in 1913,
and in 1916 state educational, charitable, and penal institutions were
brought together under a single board of administration. Nine years later
(1925) all higher education institutions were put under the control of a
board of regents, composed of nine members appointed by the Governor,
and serving without remuneration. Consolidation of rural schools, though
expedient, has not proceeded rapidly. Failure to consolidate, according to
a report of the Kansas State Planning Board (Rural Schools in Kansas:
March 1935) is due to the fact that "the rural school serves not only edu
cational needs, but acts as a political and social center for the community
and has a strong hold on the sentiments of the people." There are approx
imately 8,600 school districts, spread over the State with little regard for
wealth or number of pupils, and each still possesses the individual powers
designated by the Third Territorial legislature. More than 3,000 districts
have a taxable value of less than $150,000, and in 1,000 districts, schools
average less than six pupils.
The study referred to above reported on 8,217 schools out of 8,326 or
ganized and operating in cities of the third class and in rural districts. It
found an enrollment of 207,377 (December 1934), though the normal
capacity of the schools was 331,194. The 1935 legislature passed a law
permitting school districts to share the expenses of maintaining one school
for two or more districts, while otherwise retaining their separate identities.
Financial difficulties resulted in a wide disparity in school taxes, and in-
NORTH HIGH SCHOOL, WICHITA
110 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
equalities in equipment, teaching standards, and educational opportunities
in general. Public schools ranged from the magnificent $2,600,000 Wyan-
dotte High School in Kansas City, to one-room buildings, of which there
were 7,000 in 1934.
The only State school aid, up to 1937, was from the proceeds of the dog
tax and the interest on the permanent school fund. In this year, after dec
ades of discussion in legislative halls, at political meetings, and on cam
paign platforms about the "evils of the Kansas school system," the State
legislature provided that $2,500,000 be appropriated annually between
1937 and 1939 from a State sales tax for the aid of needy elementary
schools. The fund is distributed by the State superintendent of public
instruction.
High schools in the small towns are often centers of social activities for
young and old alike. Conscientious and hardworking teachers prepare
schedules of debates, dramatic and musical productions, and athletic events,
which draw large crowds and generally provide for the purchase of school
equipment. In the early 1930*5 high school bands developed, glorious in
their bright uniforms, and plumed hats. These groups of boys and girls
parade resplendently behind a high-stepping student bandmaster, and en
liven county and State fairs, inaugurals, and holiday celebrations. Trips
with the band to surrounding towns and the State capital are cherished
ambitions of high school music students.
Comparatively new in the Kansas educational system is the municipal
junior college. Thirteen are maintained, with an approximate attendance of
4,000, and eight similar institutions are under parochial control.
In addition to the five State colleges financed by biennial legislative ap
propriations, there are eighteen private institutions of higher learning;
but the enrollment of the latter group is equal to only one-third of the
total for colleges. Four are Catholic institutions, three Methodist, while the
Mennonites, Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Dunkards each sponsor
one or more. These institutions are supported from tuition fees, private
contributions, and small endowments.
Wichita Municipal University, formerly Fairmount College, was ac
quired by the city at a special election in 1926. It is the only municipally
owned institution of higher learning in Kansas. Since 1926 its enrollment
has grown from 400 to approximately 2,000, including 700 Wichita citi
zens in its extension department.
Adult education, through public night schools and the extension service
offered by the State university and other State-maintained colleges, has de
veloped rapidly in Kansas since the early 1920*8. Many of the larger cities
EDUCATION III
offer vocational training and academic courses in public night schools,
sponsored by the board of education. The Topeka night school, which
opened in 1926 with an enrollment of 634, reached an attendance peak of
2,248 in 1933. In 1936 a total of 4,443 persons were enrolled in voca
tional education classes throughout the State.
The State-wide educational program, sponsored by the Works Progress
Administration, has enabled many districts with inadequate funds to offer
adult education. On August i, 1937, there were 18,709 persons enrolled
in eleven types of classes at 567 educational centers. Courses included lit
eracy and naturalization, workers education, public affairs, parent educa
tion, homemaking, vocational education, leisure time activities, correspond
ence instruction, nursery schools, general adult education, and freshman
college subjects.
ion
first churchman of whom there is any authentic record in the
region now known as Kansas was a Franciscan friar, Father Juan de
Padilla, who accompanied Coronado s expedition to Quivira in 1541. He
returned to Mexico with the expedition, but journeyed back to spread
Christianity among the Plains Indian tribes. It is said that he was mur
dered by the Quivirans because of his decision to leave them and preach to
another tribe. According to some accounts, however, the martyred friar
was murdered by his own men.
Almost three centuries elapsed between the death of Father Padilla and
any organized efforts to establish the Christian religion in Kansas. In 1822
the Bishop of New Orleans appointed Father Charles de la Croix as a
missionary to the Osage. He is known to have visited the Osages living
along the Neosho River, and on May 5, 1822, he performed the first re
corded baptism in Kansas that of Antoine Chouteau, a five-year-old half-
breed child. Three missions were built among the Osage by the Presbyte
rian Church in the early 1820*5.
In 1830 the Reverend Thomas Johnson, as representative of the Meth
odist Church, founded Shawnee Mission (see Tour 4), the largest and
most influential religious outpost in the State. Soon afterward the Baptists
and the Friends established missions a few miles west of Shawnee. In
1836 the Roman Catholic Church successfully established a mission among
the Kickapoo, in what is now Leavenworth County.
When the first settlers began to arrive, in the early 1850*5, nine mis
sions had established churches, schools, and dwellings in the prairie wil
derness. Almost a score of others had come and gone in the quarter-
century preceding settlement.
With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which created the Kan
sas Territory and left to residents the disposition of slavery within its bor
ders, a wave of anti-slavery sentiment swept many New Englanders into
Kansas. The church press was scathing in its denunciation of the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill. Ministers throughout New England appealed eloquently
before their congregations to "take up the torch of freedom for bleeding
112
RELIGION 113
Kansas." Northern ministers and churches co-operated with the promoters
of the New England Emigrant Aid Company in organizing emigration to
the Territory.
Thus the slavery issue was bound up with the development of religious
groups. The first great movement of emigrants began in the spring of
1854. Members of the New England Company founded Lawrence, the first
Free State town in the Territory. The Reverend S. Y. Lum held church
services when the town was nothing more than a cluster of camps on the
river bank, and ten weeks after settlement began he organized in a hay
house (a tentlike structure of poles thatched with wild grass) the first
church for white people in Kansas. This organization survives today as the
Plymouth Congregational Church.
In addition to the New England Emigrant Aid Company, a number of
individual church groups supported abolitionist colonies in the early
1850*5. Most widely known of these was the Beecher Bible and Rifle Col
ony, sponsored by the Congregational minister, Henry Ward Beecher, and
so named because Beecher presented each man with a Bible and a rifle "to
defend his faith and his ideas of freedom." The colony founded the Free
State town of Wabausnee and the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church (see
Tour 3), still in existence.
Another Congregational group was the "Kansas Band," consisting of
four ardent young abolitionists Richard Cordley, Sylvester Storrs, Gros-
venor Morse, and Rosewell Parker. Graduates of Andover Theological
Seminary, they came to Kansas in 1856 to become leaders in the fight for
freedom. As pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Law
rence, Cordley became known throughout the Territory as the "abolition
preacher." He escaped death by fleeing across the river when Quantrill
and his men sacked and burned the town of Lawrence in 1863.
The Ottawa Baptist Mission in Franklin County also became a strong
hold for Free Staters in the late 1850*5, and churches in the Free State
towns of Topeka, Big Springs, Osawatomie, and Manhattan gave freely of
money and supplies to aid the cause.
With the close of the Civil War and the end of the struggle over slav
ery, the church became the center of community life in Kansas. From hum
ble beginnings in dugouts, hay houses, or the open prairie, it developed
with the growth of settlement. In communities where there were no min
isters, residents gathered to read the Bible and sing hymns on Sunday;
and on isolated claims, women often set the Sabbath day apart in thought
ful observance.
It was during these later decades of the century that Kansas, with its
114 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
broad acres of unclaimed land, became a mecca for European colonists in
search of religious freedom or of homes.
In the early iSyo s, approximately 400 families of Mennonites (about
1,900 persons) migrated to Kansas from southern Russia and settled
in Reno, Harvey, Marion, and McPherson Counties. With prosperous
churches scattered over the region, their sect numbered approximately n,-
ooo members, according to the latest U. S. Census figures (Religious Bod
ies: 1926). German-Russians who came to Kansas from the lower Volga
region at about the same time, and settled on the rolling plains country of
Rush and Ellis Counties, were chiefly Roman Catholics. They established
their own villages and, with much labor and sacrifice, erected large stone
churches with colored windows and carved interiors, which rise from the
prairie, their spires visible for miles (see Tour 3). The settlers gave their
best to the church, even depriving their families of necessities to do so.
Although not drawn to Kansas by a desire for personal or religious
freedom, as were the immigrants from Russia, colonies of Swedish Luther
ans settled in McPherson and Saline Counties in the i86o s and iSyo s.
Lindsborg is today the center of Lutheranism in the State.
Negroes, newly emancipated, migrated to Kansas from the South, and
were helped in adjusting themselves to their new home by Presbyterian
and Congregationalist ministers. In addition to the missions and churches
organized by these workers, the Negroes independently established Meth
odist and Baptist churches.
The temperance issue and the fight for prohibition profoundly affected
the Kansas churches from the close of the Civil War to the present day.
Church organizations, especially those affiliated with the Methodist, Bap
tist, and Presbyterian faiths, had joined forces with temperance workers,
shortly after the Territory was opened for settlement. At its first meeting,
in 1 86 1, the members of the Christian Temperance Union resolved:
"That we look to the churches of our State for earnest co-operation in
the work of temperance.
"That we invite and expect all ministers of the gospel to actively sup
port our cause and hope that in every part of the State they will take imme
diate steps to organize auxiliary societies."
Kansas churches accepted the invitation, and many were active in the
campaign for a prohibition amendment to the State constitution. In 1879,
when the amendment passed both houses of the legislature, a great mass
meeting was held in Topeka at which, according to contemporary accounts,
"pastors of the various churches were present and took active part in the
discussion of the best means of bringing prohibition to the State." The
RELIGION 115
amendment was ratified in the general election of 1880, with great rejoic
ing in the churches throughout the State.
Temperance was the opening wedge for a general cleaning up of the
boisterous, wide-open "cow towns" of the period. Church members espe-
c ully women were the shock troops that drove out gamblers and other
undesirable elements, and intemperance was only one of the evils against
which the crusade was waged.
Since then the churches have been the leaders in prohibition activities.
When the State legislature submitted a repeal amendment to the voters at
the general election of 1934, it was due to church efforts that the dry or
ganizations succeeded in stemming the tide of anti-prohibition sentiment
in Kansas.
According to the United States Census (Religious Bodies: 1926) there
were 4,530 church organizations in Kansas. Of these, 1,242 were urban
and 3,288 rural. Church membership totaled 747,078, divided almost
equally between urban and rural organizations. The three leading denomi
nations with their membership were Methodist Episcopal, 177,165 (all
Methodist bodies, 190,894; Roman Catholic, 171,178; Disciples of Christ,
77,409. Membership in Baptist bodies numbered 70,838, in Presbyterian,
56,667 and in Lutheran, 53,751. Membership in Protestant Episcopal
churches numbered 9,623, and in Jewish congregations approximately
5,000. Of the total church membership, 28,292 were Negro communi
cants, including 15,357 Baptists and 10,069 Methodists, with the remain
der divided among a score of other denominations. The Negroes supported
328 churches, of which 213 were urban and 115 rural.
The number of church organizations decreased between 1906 and 1926.
This was due, probably, to the abandonment of some rural churches when
roads improved and the automobile came into general use, and also to the
tendency toward consolidation of churches. During the same twenty year
period there was an increase of 272,442 in total church membership.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <&&gt; >)))>>>)))>)>>>>>
ports and Recreation
scarcity of natural water areas and the need for water conserva-
tion and flood control led indirectly to the development of the State s
chief recreational asset its State parks. A plan to establish a system of
parks, in connection with the construction of artificial lakes, was first pro
posed in 1923 by a group of sportsmen and conservationists. Through
their efforts the State forestry, fish and game commission was organized in
1925 and necessary legislation was passed to begin a lake-building pro
gram in Neosho County. Sportsmen in that and adjacent Labette County
donated 215 acres of land to the commission and a dam was built in 1927,
impounding 95 acres of water.
The first lakes were financed entirely by State funds. When the Federal
relief agencies launched a water conservation program in 1932, Kansas
promptly took advantage of that assistance. The Works Progress Admin
istration and the Civilian Conservation Corps have co-operated in devel
oping lakes and surrounding park areas. There are now (1938) twenty-
five State parks, the largest of which is in Kingman County (1,562 acres).
Artificial lakes are the nuclei of the majority of these parks and, in addi
tion, hundreds of smaller lakes of twenty acres or less have been com
pleted. The Kansas State lake plan has been adopted in neighboring Mis
souri and Oklahoma.
The State lakes are stocked with fish from the State hatchery at Pratt
(see Tour 5), which propagates bass, drum, crappie, bluegill, bull head,
yellow perch, and channel cat. These fish are also indigenous to many Kan
sas creeks and rivers. Besides fishing, the State lakes and parks have facili
ties for boating, swimming, and camping.
Pioneer hunters and trappers found vast quantities of game and other
wild life in Kansas. Gradually many species became extinct or greatly
diminished in number. The program of the forestry, fish and game com
mission has restored a small fraction of the State s game, and increased the
opportunities for good hunting. The commission has established a public
shooting ground near Jamestown, Republic County, where the water area,
normally 765 acres, lies in salt marshlands. There are 40 blinds, each ac-
116
r3i%
. . x >
JAYHAWKERS IN ACTION, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
commodating two hunters. A nominal fee is charged for the use of blinds
and decoys. The commission also maintains quail farms near Calista and
Pittsburg, and a 3,200 acre tract in Finney County which serves as a buf
falo range and a prairie chicken preserve.
The supply of quail and prairie chicken has been steadily enlarged, but
these game birds still need the protection of a short season. Found in great
numbers, and consequently hunted during longer open seasons, are coon,
squirrels, and mourning doves. Duck hunting in season is popular at the
State Jakes and along the larger streams.
The jackrabbit drive is peculiar to western Kansas. Advertised for days
in advance by handbills and local newspapers, the drive usually starts on
Sunday and is attended by great crowds of spectators. A certain area, cov
ering perhaps thousands of acres, is surrounded by beaters armed with
clubs and sticks; guns are banned. Hundreds of people take part. Slowly
the lines close in on all sides, flushing the rabbits into a large pen or wire
enclosure at a central point, where they are clubbed to death. The daily
kill," which in many instances exceeds 6,500, is reported by the local
press. Denounced in other sections as a sadistic display, the drive is de-
Il8 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
fended in the western part of the State as an economic necessity, since the
rabbits feed on green wheat.
Similar to the rabbit drive in plan and purpose is the wolf or coyote
drive. A common event in earlier years, these drives were revived in cer
tain regions of Kansas after 1930, when the suspension of bounties by
economizing county governments resulted in a mounting loss of small live
stock. A modern touch was recently added when coyote hunters in Frank
lin County used a low-flying airplane to spot their quarry.
The most popular drives in Kansas, however, are those made with golf
clubs and tennis rackets. Five State-wide golf tournaments are held each
year. A State tennis meet is held annually at Independence, and an inter-
scholastic tournament is held at Emporia. Invitation tennis meets are sched
uled each season at Wichita, Dodge City, McPherson, and other cities.
Football, an intercollegiate sport of Kansas colleges since the early
1890*5, is now on the athletic program of 400 Kansas high schools. A
so-called "clinical" game, employing rules that marked the beginning of
the transition from the old "push-and-pull" kind of football to the mod
ern open game, was played at Wichita in 1905. The first forward pass in
American football history was attempted and completed in this trial game.
The Thanksgiving Day Football game between the University of Kansas
and the University of Missouri is a traditional contest that dates from
1891. The game is played at the Missouri field and the Kansas Stadium in
alternate years. The annual game between the Kansas State College and
the University of Kansas, played alternately at Lawrence and Manhattan,
is of State-wide interest.
Basketball is the most popular team sport in Kansas. The game was in
vented by a Kansan, Dr. James L. Naismith of the Physical Education De
partment of the University of Kansas, in collaboration with Luther H.
Gulick. Kansas basketball teams have thrice won first place in the national
high school tournament, and the University of Kansas is a perennial leader
in the Big Six conference. The annual national tournament for women s
basketball teams is held in March at Wichita.
Kansas is represented in professional baseball by the Salina Millers and
the Hutchinson Larks of the Western Association. The National Semi-
Professional Baseball Congress is held annually at Wichita. State-wide
amateur leagues include the Ban Johnson League for youths, and the
American Legion Junior League for boys between thirteen and sixteen.
Softball, said to have been invented at Topeka in April 1916 by employees
of the Santa Fe Railway, is very popular in the larger cities.
The University of Kansas Relays, a two-day track and field carnival held
-.;-
A r ^-J--_. j-n, . -_ r . V TIHI vNm^ijL
1 . IT. J-
INDIAN BOXING TEAM, HASKELL INSTITUTE, LAWRENCE
in. the latter part of April at the university stadium in Lawrence, is an
event of national interest. Established in 1924, soon after the completion
of the stadium, this meet has become a rendezvous for internationally
known athletes. Among those who have competed in the Kansas Relays
are Jim Bausch of Wichita, 1932 Olympic decathlon champion; Glenn
Cunningham of Elkhart, holder of the world s record for the mile and a
member of the Olympic team in 1932 and 1936; and Archie San Romani
of Pittsburg, middle-distance runner and a member of the 1936 Olympic
team.
Professional boxing bouts are infrequent in Kansas, but professional
wrestling matches are held at Topeka, Wichita, Pittsburg, Kansas City and
Hutchinson. Amateur boxing is popular at Kansas State College, Kansas
University, Haskell Institute, and St. Benedict s College. A wrestling tour
nament is conducted annually by the Kansas High School Association.
Harness racing, a highly developed and popular sport which declined
between 1929 and 1934, has enjoyed a recent revival. Race meetings are
held at various county affairs and at the Topeka and Hutchinson State
Fairs. Spring and autumn coursing meets are held at Abilene. Dog and
horse races are annual features at Dodge City. Lawrin, winner of the Ken-
120 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
tucky Derby in 1938, was foaled and trained at the Woolford Farms of
Herbert Wolf in Johnson County. Polo, almost unknown in the Middle
West until a few years ago, is played at Topeka, Wichita, and other major
cities.
Acutely aware that its chief places of recreation were the corner lot and
the malarial "swimmin hole," urban Kansas, beginning with the estab
lishment of a playground system at Topeka in 1912, turned its attention
toward acquiring suitable recreational facilities. Today there is scarcely a
town with a population of more than 1,500 that lacks a golf course, a
swimming pool, tennis courts, and baseball diamonds. A recreational pro
gram is now being carried on by the WPA in 121 communities.
1-ri
ism and
lists
ourna
OTHAM MEEKER, a Baptist missionary connected with the Shawnee
Indian Mission near the present site of Kansas City, established the
first newspaper published in what is now Kansas. Meeker, a printer as
well as a minister of the Gospel, came to Shawnee Mission early in 1833
and (according to his diary) began setting type on the first issue of the
Shawnee Sun on February 18, 1835. This first issue appeared six days
later. The Sun, a monthly publication, was printed in the native language
of the Shawnee tribe, and was the second newspaper to be published in an
Indian language the first being the Cherokee Phoenix (1828), issued in
the South. No copies of the Sun s early issues are known to be in exist
ence; but a copy of one of the later issues, dated November 1841, was
found in Kansas City a few years ago.
On September 15, 1854, shortly after the opening of Kansas Territory
to settlement, a second newspaper, the Kansas Weekly Herald, made its
appearance at Leavenworth. Evidently the press proposed to lead rather
than to follow the course of progress, for few signs of civilization were
visible on the town site of Leavenworth at that time. This departure from
usual journalistic practice was criticized by some as preposterous, but most
residents of the Territory saw nothing out of the ordinary in the fact that
the printing press should thus precede other activities.
The clash between opposing forces within the Territory on the issue of
slavery provided the pioneer Kansas editors with abundant copy. Ardent
champions as they were of one side or the other in this conflict, the editors
actually helped to make the news they reported. During the years of bitter
strife that followed the opening of the Territory, printing offices were
wrecked or burned by warring factions and their presses demolished or
thrown into nearby streams. Lawrence newspapers suffered this fate when
the notorious Sheriff Jones and his men sacked the town on May 21, 1856.
Jones s men destroyed the plant of the Herald of Freedom, edited by Dr.
121
THE COUNTRY EDITOR WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
JOURNALISM AND JOURNALISTS 123
George W. Brown, smashing the press and throwing type and other
equipment in the Kaw River.
The Kansas Free State, established January 5, 1855, by Josiah Miller
and R. G. Elliott, suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Lecompton
raiders and was never revived. Miller, a native of South Carolina, had left
that State because of his opposition to slavery. The "border ruffians" con
sidered him fair game on account of his southern origin and arrested him
for treason against the State of South Carolina. Acquitted of the charge,
he stumped several of the northern States for Fremont during the Presi
dential campaign of 1856. Returning to Lawrence in the following year,
he was elected probate judge and later State senator from Douglas County.
Thus the tradition of the Kansas newspaper man as a political leader was
early established. A notable example of this tradition was John J. Ingalls
who edited the Atchison Champion during the Civil War period (1863-
6). An important figure in Territorial and State politics, Ingalls was
United States Senator from Kansas from 1873 until his defeat by the Popu
lists in 1890. From that time until his death ten years later he devoted
himself chiefly to literature and journalism.
In spite of raids and wreckings, the pioneer press developed steadily,
and by 1858 there were 22 newspapers in the Territory. This number had
increased at the close of the Civil War to 37 exactly as many as existed
in the country as a whole at the time of the Declaration of Independence,
a coincidence upon which Kansas newspapers like to dwell. Kansas had
been torn and desolated by years of strife, its economic life paralyzed, and
its general development apparently hopelessly arrested. Newspapers played
a major part in the phenomenal development of the next five years by re-
\i\ing hope and confidence, encouraging immigration, and promoting in
dustry. The State s population grew from 140,179 in 1865 to 362,307 in
1870, and the number of newspapers increased during the same period
from 37 to 80.
Captain Henry King played a prominent part in the post-war period of
Kansas journalism. A native of Illinois, he served in the Union Army
throughout the Civil War and then returned to Illinois to edit the Daily
Whig at Quincy. In 1869 he came to Topeka, where he edited successively
the State Record, the Commonwealth, and the Capital. He was also the
first editor of the Kansas Magazine. In 1883 he went to the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat as contributing editor. Promoted to the managing editor
ship of the Globe-Democrat in 1897, he held that position until his death
in 1915. Of Kansas journalists in the 1870 $ and early i88o s, Captain
King has written as follows:
124 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
We had our rivalries and antipathies, but for the most part they were transient
and subordinate, and did not cause any serious disturbance of the fundamental con
cord. It was in our politics, however, that we were most apt to disregard the im
pulses of brotherly love and patience. The Kansas newspapers had early manifested
a partiality for aggressive and vociferous campaigns. They were fond of putting
candidates under the harrow, as they called it a process which they have not yet
entirely abandoned, I am told. Even a toughened veteran like General Jim Lane had
been lacerated to the point of calling for mercy from the Atchison Champion when
Ingalls was editing it. "About the mildest term it ever applies to me," he said, "is
miscreant."
The Topeka State Record was first published in 1859 ky Edmund G.
and W. W. Ross. Edmund Ross, while serving the unexpired term of
Senator James H. Lane in the United States Senate, incurred the wrath of
his constituents by voting in favor of President Andrew Johnson in the
latter s impeachment trial. His political career ruined, Ross returned to his
former profession and published the Lawrence Standard for a number of
years.
Prominent among the earlier journalists of Kansas was Daniel W.
Wilder, better known in later years for his Annals of Kansas. Wilder had
settled in Kansas in Territorial days, becoming editor of the Elwood Free
Press in 1858. In 1861 he became editor of the Leavenworth Daily Con
servative and purchased Colonel Dan Anthony s interest in that newspaper
when Anthony joined the army. He went to Rochester, New York, in
1865 to edit the Evening Express, but returned to the Conservative three
years later. In 1871 he left Leavenworth for Fort Scott, where he became
editor of the Monitor. In the following year he was elected State auditor,
and won a reputation for reforms instituted in that office.
John A. Martin purchased the Atchison Squatter Sovereign in 1858 and
changed its name to Freedom s Champion. During the war he served as
lieutenant colonel and later as colonel of the Eighth Kansas Regiment.
After his discharge from the service in 1864, he resumed his editorial po
sition with the Champion and continued at that post until his election as
Governor in 1885. He died in 1889, not long after his retirement from the
governorship.
Noble L. Prentis, like Martin a native of Illinois and a Civil War
veteran, was associated with Captain King on the Topeka Record and
Commonwealth, was later editor of the Junction City Union, and during
Colonel Martin s term as Governor (1885-1889) was proprietor of the
Champion in Atchison. In 1888 he took charge of the Newton Republi
can, leaving that paper for a position on the staff of the Kansas City Star
which he held until his death in 1900.
Another soldier-editor was Col. Daniel R. Anthony, who founded a
JOURNALISM AND JOURNALISTS 125
Kansas newspaper dynasty. As one of the proprietors of the Leavenworth
Conservative, established in 1861, Anthony "scooped" the State press on
the news of Kansas admittance to the Union in that year. At the out
break of the war he became lieutenant colonel of the Second Kansas
Cavalry. After the war Anthony returned to newspaper work, and the
Leavenworth Times, following its consolidation with several contempo
raries, came under his control in 1872. Upon his death in 1904 his son,
the late D. R. Anthony, Jr., Congressman for several terms from the First
Kansas District, continued publication of the Times. The next of the line,
D. R. Anthony, III, is publisher of the paper today (1938).
Also prominent in the early post-war period were Marshall M. Mur-
dock, founder of the Wichita Eagle in 1872, Preston B. Plumb of the
Emporia Kansas News, and Sol Miller of the Troy Kansas Chief. But
these names are of minor importance in comparison with that of Edgar
W. Howe, author of The Story of a Country Town and of numerous
other books that have won for him a national reputation in addition to
his fame as a journalist. Howe s newspaper career began in 1873, wnen
at the age of nineteen he became editor and publisher of a newspaper in
Golden, Colorado. Four years later he moved to Atchison and began pub
lication in that city of the Daily Globe, which under his editorship and
proprietorship was a potent force in Kansas journalism for more than a
third of a century. Retiring from active newspaper work in 1911, Howe
edited and published for several years a magazine called E. W. Howe s
Monthly. He died at Atchison late in 1937.
Another Kansas editor and publisher of national reputation is Arthur
Capper, who like Ed Howe entered newspaper work at the age of nine
teen. Beginning as a typesetter on the Topeka Daily Capital, he worked
upward on that journal through the successive stages of reporter, city
editor, and Washington correspondent, to become its publisher and pro
prietor. In 1893 he assumed editorship of the North Topeka Mail, a
weekly newspaper later consolidated with the Kansas Breeze, which was
founded in 1894 by T. A. McNeal and edited jointly by McNeal and
Capper. The latter soon established other publications, including Capper s
Weekly, Capper s Farmer, and the Household Magazine.
As publisher of the Capital, Capper soon became closely identified with
the Republican party in Kansas politics, and as that party s candidate he
was elected Governor in 1914 the first native Kansan to hold this office.
After serving a second term as Governor, he was elected to the United
States Senate in 1918 and subsequently re-elected in 1924, 1930, and
1936.
126 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
Capper has been fortunate in his editorial assistants, such as the late
Harold T. Chase and T. A. McNeal. Chase was editorial writer for the
Capital from 1889 until shortly before his death in 1936, and his schol
arly and keenly analytical writing received more than State-wide recogni
tion. The association with T. A. McNeal, from whom Capper purchased
the Kansas Breeze in 1895, has continued since that date. Tom McNeal is
now (1938) the dean of Kansas editors. A native of Ohio, he came to
Kansas in 1879 and was part owner of the Medicine Lodge Cresset for
fifteen years. He served a term as mayor of Medicine Lodge, was later a
member of the State legislature, and for six years held the office of State
printer.
Unlike many of his journalistic contemporaries Frank P. McLennan,
Capper s most prominent rival in the Topeka newspaper field, never as
pired to public office. He came to Emporia from Ohio in the 1 870*5;
published the Emporia Daily News with Jacob Stotler and Alexander Butts
for several years, and then purchased the bankrupt Topeka State Journal
at public auction in 1885. McLennan successfully conducted the Journal
as an independent newspaper for nearly half a century. He also served for
many years as vice president of the board of directors of the Associated
Press, once remarking that he regarded that position as preferable to the
office of United States Senator. He died in Topeka in 1933.
Capper was succeeded as Governor of Kansas in 1918 by Henry J.
Allen, a Wichita publisher whose attempt to regulate labor disputes
through the Kansas Industrial Court attracted national attention. Begin
ning as editor of the Manhattan Nationalist in 1894, Allen later acquired
and operated several daily papers in smaller cities of Kansas. He pub
lished the Wichita Daily Beacon from 1907 until 1928, when he sold it to
Max and Louis Levand. Shortly after the death of Frank P. McLennan in
1933, Allen became editor of the Topeka State Journal.
J. A. Wayland, who founded the Appeal to Reason at Girard in 1897,
was a political journalist of a type seldom found in Kansas, where editors
have been prone to promote themselves for public office and to align
themselves with the dominant political group. Wayland was an ardent
Socialist, and his Appeal to Reason, backed by a fortune acquired in Texas
real estate speculation, soon became a national organ of the underprivi
leged. Wayland later leased the paper to Fred Warren, who continued its
publication until 1912. E. Haldeman-Julius then took it over, changing
its name to Haldeman-Julius Weekly in 1922, and later to the New
Appeal and to its present title, the American Freeman.
For several decades, no name in the annals of Kansas journalism has
JOURNALISM AND JOURNALISTS 127
been better known to the American public than that of William Allen
White, "the sage of Emporia." Born in that city in 1868, White was
reared in Butler County and learned the printer s trade in the office of the
El Dorado Republican. In 1891, soon after graduation from the Univer
sity of Kansas, he joined the editorial staff of the Kansas City Journal,
and was later employed on the Star in the same city. In 1895 he purchased
the Emporia Gazette, which he has owned and edited ever since.
With the publication in 1896 of his famous Gazette editorial, "What s
the Matter with Kansas?" White achieved national renown almost over
night. Appearing in the midst of a heated Presidential campaign, it
assailed the Populist movement then sweeping the Middle West and was
given such widespread prominence by the Republican campaign managers
that it played an important part in the election of McKinley.
Like Ed Howe of Atchison, White is no less well known as an author
than as a journalist. A dozen books of fiction, biography, social and
political commentary have appeared from his pen in the past forty years.
He has also played an active part in politics and public affairs as an inde
pendent "progressive."
Not a few editors and writers who have risen to prominence elsewhere
in the country began their careers in Kansas newspaper offices. Wesley
Winans Stout, who in 1937 succeeded George Horace Lorimer as editor
of the Saturday Evening Post, is a native of Junction City who left col
lege in his freshman year to work on the Wichita Beacon and was later
on the editorial staff of the Kansas City Star. Walt Mason, characterized
by William Allen White as "the poet laureate of American democracy,"
wrote the first of his now widely syndicated "prose poems" as a staff
worker on the Emporia Gazette, to which he had come after serving an
apprenticeship on the Atchison Globe. Edwin S. Beck, a son of the pio
neer Holton editor Moses M. Beck, has been managing editor of the
Chicago Tribune since 1910. Will T. Beck, a younger son, has continued
publication of the Holton Recorder, which his father purchased in 1881.
The Kansas City Star, although a Missouri newspaper, has often been
a potent factor in molding public opinion in Kansas. The late William
Rockhill Nelson, founder of the Star, soon learned that Republican Kansas
offered a more fruitful field for his political theories than traditionally
Democratic Missouri. Nelson s successors have continued his editorial poli
cies, and the Star has been identified with the liberal element in Kansas
Republicanism.
The indomitable spirit of the pioneer editor still prevails in Kansas
journalism. Recent years of unprecedented drought and agricultural de-
128 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
pression have not daunted the State s press. And, as has been demonstrated
in recent political campaigns, Kansas editors have lost none of their tradi
tional trenchancy. More than 700 newspapers and other periodicals, pub
lished in Kansas in 1937, included 61 dailies, 497 weeklies (five of which
were published by Negroes), 71 monthlies, and 21 quarterlies.
Realizing that the most accurate and complete history of any commu
nity lies in its newspapers, Kansas editors have co-operated with the State
Historical Society in preserving their issues for students of Kansas history.
The periodical section of the society possesses the most complete files of
the State s newspapers in this country. In many instances the society s
file of a paper is the only one extant. In January 1937 the State Historical
Society had 44,307 bound volumes of Kansas periodicals.
<<<<<<<<<<<<&&gt;>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Literature
first writing inspired by the region comprised in the present
State of Kansas was the journal of Pedro de Castaneda de Najera,
who in 1541 accompanied the Spanish explorer Coronado on the latter s
march through this region in search of the semi-legendary city or prov
ince of Quivira. In the three centuries between Coronado s futile quest
and the early settlement of Kansas, the region was traversed by other
explorers, some of whom notably, among the later travelers, Etienne
Bourgmont, Lewis and Clark and their aide Patrick Gass, and Zebulon M.
Pike have given us factual records of the region in their published
journals.
When Kansas became a territory in 1854, the issue between Free Soil
and pro-slavery settlers generated a conflict and a debate that raged for
several years with the fierce intensity of a prairie fire. The Free Soil cause
found its most eloquent literary expression in the writings and speeches
of the great New England abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Wen
dell Phillips, and the poet Whittier. The latter s stirring song of "The
Kansas Emigrants" was a rallying hymn for hundreds of New England
emigrants, both on the westward march and in their new home. Note
worthy also were Whittier s bitterly satiric "Letter from a missionary of
the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in Kansas, to a distinguished
politician," his verses on the burial of Thomas Barber, shot December 6,
1855, near Lawrence, and the poem "For Righteousness Sake" inscribed
"to friends under arrest for treason against the slave power." Within the
Territory itself, the only authentic literary note in the struggle was struck
by Richard Realf, a gifted young English poet who emigrated to Kansas
in 1857 an d in the course of about a year s residence there contributed
several ardent anti-slavery poems to various Kansas newspapers.
The first novel to be written with Kansas as a setting was Emerson
Bennett s The Border Rover (1857), a blood-and-thunder narrative of
heroic settlers and ferocious Indians. Ten years later appeared Evender C.
Kennedy s Osseo, the Spectre Chieftain, a poem in eight cantos which has
the distinction of being the first literary work produced by a permanent
129
130 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
resident of Kansas. This was followed five years later by Annie Nelles
Ravenia, or The Outcast Redeemed. These extravagances reflected little of
the actual Kansas scene and had small literary merit.
Historical and descriptive narratives were prominent in the output of
Kansas writers during the last half of the nineteenth century. One of the
earliest books in this field was Sara T. D. Robinson s Kansas: Its Interior
and Exterior Life (1856). Mary E. Jackson turned to past events with
The Spy of Osawatomie; or, The Mysterious Companions of Old John
Brown (1881) ; and in his Gleanings from Western Prairies (1882), the
Reverend W. E. Youngman recalled the experiences of a year spent on a
frontier ranch in Kansas. Colonel Henry Inman, who had served at various
Kansas army posts in the 1850*5 and i86o s, drew largely upon personal
observation and experience in a long list of books written after he retired
from the Army and settled down at Lamed. With a biography of Senator
James Henry Lane (1899), William E. Connelley began an extensive se
ries of studies in Kansas history, biography, and ethnology, including a
five-volume history of the State and its people.
One of the few Kansas writers preoccupied with the common life of
his own time in the century s later decades was Edgar Watson Howe,
editor and proprietor of the Atchison Globe from 1877 to 1911. His
Story of a Country Town, after rejection by several publishers, was pri
vately printed in 1883, and has since achieved a permanent place in
American literature. It is a realistic picture of a small prairie town, with
emphasis on the more somber phases of midwestern life in the i86o s and
i87o s. Howe retired from active newspaper work in 1911, devoting
himself thenceforth to authorship, to travel, and (until 1933) to editing
and publishing E. W . Howe s Monthly. From his home on "Potato Hill"
near Atchison he put forth no fewer than twenty-five books, several of
which are collections of travel letters. His frank autobiography, Plain
People, appeared in 1929; and his last book, Final Conclusions, was pub
lished shortly before his death in 1937.
Despite the common concern with politics, prohibition, and real estate
speculation in Kansas of the i88o s and 1890*5, the muses were not wholly
silent during this period. With his clever verse in both humorous and
serious vein, Eugene F. Ware made the pseudonym of "Ironquill" familiar
to an audience that extended far beyond the borders of his own State.
Collected in book form, the Rhymes of Ironquill appeared in 1885, and
an enlarged edition was published in 1899. Another popular purveyor of
homespun philosophy in verse, Walt Mason, whose "prose poems" have
LITERATURE 131
long been a familiar syndicated feature in hundreds of American news
papers and have been reprinted in ten or a dozen volumes, began writing
for the Atchison Globe in 1885. For many years after 1907, Mr. Mason
was associated with William Allen White on the Emporia Gazette. In the
last decade of the century, Charles Moreau Harger, then a youthful news
paper editor in Abilene, frequently turned his pen to poetry ; and Florence
L. Snow of Neosho Falls wrote a collection of sonnets published under
the title, The Lamp of Gold. The first literary appearance of William
Allen White and Albert Bigelow Paine was made with their Rhymes by
Two Friends (1893). But the outstanding poetic achievement of this
period was a single poem by John J. Ingalls, who represented Kansas in
the United States Senate from 1873 to 1891. His "Opportunity," written
in 1891 and since reprinted in many standard anthologies, is considered
by competent critics to be one of the finest sonnets in nineteenth century
American literature.
William Allen White, long editor of the Emporia Gazette and best
known of contemporary Kansas writers, came suddenly into national
prominence in 1896 with the publication of a newspaper editorial entitled
"What s the Matter with Kansas?" In the same year he put forth his first
independent book, The Real Issue and Other Stories. This was followed
by The Court of Boy v ill e (1899), a keen depiction of the adolescent
American male; Stratagems and Spoils (1901); and In Our Town
(1906), which first displayed his unusual ability for portraying typical
small-town life. His most important full-length novels are A Certain Rich
Man (1909) and In the Heart of a Fool (1918). In later years, he turned
definitely to the field of public affairs with such books as Politics: The
Citizen s Business (1924), Woodrow Wilson (1924), Calvin Coolidge
(1925), and Masks in a Pageant (1928), the last a series of character
studies of political leaders whom the author had known more or less
intimately. Mr. White s neglect, during the last two decades, of the no
table creative talent evidenced in his earlier books has been often deplored.
"Had it not been for his uncontrolled urge to be a man of action,"
remarks W. G. Clugston, a Kansas commentator, "he might have been
not only Kansas first man of letters but also one of America s outstanding
creative artists."
In the same year that William Allen White attained national fame with
a newspaper editorial, the Reverend Charles M. Sheldon of Topeka sprang
into equal prominence with a religious novel entitled /;; His Steps, which
deals with the theme of what Jesus might do if confronted with the
132 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
problems of a business man in a small midwestern city. Although this
book had world-wide circulation, a defective copyright deprived Doctor
Sheldon of royalties. He has subsequently written more than thirty novels,
most of which were read serially to his congregation before publication.
Second only to Doctor Sheldon among Kansas novelists with respect to
prolific output is Mrs. Margaret Hill McCarter, who has made generous
use in her books of material from the State s history. Beginning in 1903
with The Cottonwood s Story, the list of her writings comprises more than
a dozen titles, perhaps the best known of which are The Price of the
Frames (1910), a story of Civil War Kansas, and A Wall of Men
(1912), a romance of the Free Soil struggle. The lights and shadows of
Kansas life in the opening decades of the present century are skilfully
limned by Dell H. Munger in Wind before the Dawn (1914), a realistic
tale of prairie farm life. Of somewhat similar character is Dust (1921),
by Mr. and Mrs. E. Haldeman-Julius, who are also the authors of a later
novel entitled Violence.
Two of the State s most distinguished writers seem to have bequeathed
much of their literary ability to a second generation. Mateel Howe Farn-
ham, daughter of E. W. Howe, was awarded the first prize of $10,000 in
Dodd, Mead & Company s 1927 fiction contest for her novel entitled
Rebellion; and William L. White, son of "the sage of Emporia," has
recently created a sensation in Kansas literary and political circles with his
first novel, What People Said (1938), the plot of which has to do with a
financial scandal that rocked the State in 1933. Mrs. Farnham, by the
way, is not the only Kansas author who has won the Dodd, Mead &
Company prize; in 1933 it went to Mrs. L. M. Alexander of Baldwin for
her novel, Candy.
Sunflowers, privately printed by Willard Wattles in 1914, is the earliest
among several anthologies of Kansas poetry. It made a brave showing for
the prairie muse with such selections as Ingalls "Opportunity," W. H.
Carruth s "Each in His Own Tongue," Eugene F. Ware s "John Brown"
and "Three States," Ellen P. Allerton s "Walls of Corn," Harry Kemp s
"A Wheat Field Phantasy," Wattles "Carrie Nation" and "Challenge to
Youth," Sol Miller s "Pawpaws Ripe," and Charles L. Edson s "My Sage-
Brush Girl" with its fine lines:
I know who wielded the flaming sword that drove my tribe before me
Into the dusty desert wide, where all the flowers are dead;
Know why we met in a rainless land when the dream of dreams came
o er me;
We were the disinherited kin of the lords of meat and bread.
LITERATURE 133
Two later anthologies are Contemporary Kansas Poetry (1927), edited
3y Helen Rhoda Hoopes, and Kansas Poets (1935), edited by Henry
Harrison. Many of the selections in these volumes originally appeared in
The Harp, a magazine of verse established at Lamed in 1925 by Dr.
Israel Newman. Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Wallace assumed its management in
1926, with May Williams Ward as editor, and it continued under these
auspices until its demise in 1932. Its editor received the Poetry Society of
America award in 1937 for her Dust Bowl sequence.
Esther Clark Hill, who assisted Willard Wattles in preparing the first
anthology of Kansas poetry, had several volumes of verse to her credit at
the time of her death in 1932. In Whitelaw Saunders What Laughing
God? published by the Poetry Society of Kansas in 1936, and Kenneth
Porter s The High Plains (1938), the collected work of two gifted Kansas
poets has been given permanent form.
Contemporary Kansas literature, according to Nelson Antrim Crawford,
is what might be expected "of a State with the population of Kansas, its
geographical position, and its recent history." And he adds: "I for one
should be glad if Kansas literature would take off its cap and gown and
hood and be frankly drunk with the juice of art." In truth, much of that
literature has emanated from writers of pronounced academic background
and is invested with a pronounced classroom sobriety. But happily Mr.
Crawford s own work is characterized by no spirit of dusty scholarship.
After serving for several years as head of the department of journalism
at Kansas State College, he has since given most of his time to writing
and editing. His "Carrying of the Ghost" won the Kansas poetry award
in 1920, and among his novels are A Man of Learning (1928) and
Unhappy Wind (1930) the former a sharp satire on the American
educator.
Neither can any taint of acute academicism be rightfully attributed to
the work of William Herbert Carruth, for more than thirty years profes
sor of modern languages and literature at the University of Kansas. In
addition to much professional work as writer and editor, Professor Car-
ruth found time to compile a two- volume anthology of Kansas in Litera
ture (1900) and to create such books of general interest as Letters to
American Boys (1907), Each in His Own Tongue and Other Poems
(1909), and Verse Writing (1917). With the single exception of Ingalls
"Opportunity," no poem by a Kansas author has been so widely and
frequently quoted as "Each in His Own Tongue," which begins:
134 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
A Fire-Mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jelly-fish and a saurian,
And caves where the cave-men dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty,
And a face turned from the clod,
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God.
Numerous others besides Professor Carruth have helped to make the
university at Lawrence a notable center of activity in scholarly and crea
tive writing, although only a few can be mentioned here. Frank W.
Blackmar, dean of the Graduate School for many years after 1896, has a
long list of historical and sociological studies to his credit, including The
Story of Human Progress (1896), a History of Higher Education in
Kansas (1900), and Life of Charles Robinson, First Governor of Kansas
(1902); he also edited the Cyclopedia of History of Kansas. Frank H.
Hodder, chosen head of the department of history and political science
in 1908, is author of The Civil Government of Kansas (1895) and
Outlines of American History (1911), and editor of Audubon s Western
Journal (1905). While occupying a prominent post in the history depart
ment from 1902 to 1916, Carl L. Becker published Political Parties in the
Province of New York, 1760-1775 (1908), Kansas (1910), and Begin
nings of the American People (1915). Selden L. Whitcomb, in the depart
ment of comparative literature, has published four volumes of original
verse, in addition to The Study of a Novel (1905), Autumn Notes in
Iowa (1914), and other prose works. Margaret Lynn, professor of Eng
lish literature, has to her credit Stepdaughter of the Prairie (1914) and
Free Soil (1920), the latter a compelling narrative of the struggle between
abolitionist and pro-slavery forces in territorial Kansas. More recently,
Alfred M. Lee, in the department of journalism, has published an account
of The Daily Newspaper in America (1937) ; and John Ise, in the depart
ment of economics, has produced Sod and Stubble (1937), a story of
pioneer days in Kansas.
Of past and present faculty members at Kansas State College, Nelson
A. Crawford has previously been mentioned in these notes. Charles Elkins
Rogers, head of the department of journalism, is the author of Journalistic
Vocations (1931) ; and Fred A. Shannon of the history department has
written The Organization and Administration of the Union Army, 1861
1865, which won a Pulitzer prize for the best piece of American historical
research work in 1929, and An Economic History of the People of the
United States (1935).
LITERATURE 135
Among non-academic writers on subjects of specialized interest, one of
the most prominent has been George P. Morehouse, whose published
works include The Kansa, or Kaw, Indians and Their History (1908),
An Historic Trail (1909), Pad ill a, the Priest of the Plains (1915), Pre
historic Alan in Kansas (1917), and Archaeology of Kansas (1918).
William Y. Murphy, for many years editor and proprietor of the Hutch-
inson News, has written a volume on The Near East (1913), in addition
to two books of travel sketches. Gustav N. Malm of Lindsborg, artist as
well as writer, is the author of Charley Johnson: A Study of the Swedish
Immigrant (1909), as well as of a play entitled Harute (1919). Paul
Jones, newspaper publisher of Lyons, in his Quivira (1929) and Coronado
and Quivira (1937), supports the thesis that the ancient city sought by
Coronado in 1541 centered about the present town site of Lyons. Dr. Karl
Menninger, a well-known psychiatrist of Topeka, has reached a wide
popular audience with his books on The Human Mind (1930) and Man
against Himself (1938).
Though work of serious import has taken an increasingly prominent
place in the literature of recent years, entertainment for young and old is
still the primary purpose of many Kansas authors. Especially prolific in
this field have been Thomas C. Hinkle, who specializes in animal stories
for children; James William Earp, whose tales of railroad life are familiar
to readers of the popular magazines; and Edna Becker, who has published
several volumes of stories and verse for younger readers. In the realm of
detective fiction, Kirke Mechem s Frame for Murder was a 1935 selection
of the "Crime Club." Entertainment and edification are happily mingled
in Arthur E. Hertzler s The Horse and Buggy Doctor, which describes the
author s experiences as a country doctor in Kansas.
The list of writers who have been residents of Kansas for a time, but
whose literary reputations were gained elsewhere, contains several promi
nent names. Frank Harris, noted Irish-American journalist and author,
attended the University of Kansas in the early 1870*5, and later worked
on a ranch in the Flint Hills country an experience described in his
book, My Reminiscences as a Cowboy (1930). Kate Stephens, from 1879
to 1885 professor of Greek at the University of Kansas, later wrote
Delphic Kansas (1911), Life at Laurel Town: In Anglo Saxon Kansas
(1920), and /;; a State University of the Middle West, besides several
books of more general appeal. Dorothy Canfield Fisher, novelist and
essayist, was born at Lawrence, where her father was a member of the
university faculty. Albert Bigelow Paine, friend, biographer, and literary
executor of Mark Twain and the author of many books in various fields,
136 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
lived for a while in Fort Scott and has further association with the State
through his collaboration with William Allen White in Rhymes by Two
Friends (1893). Florence Finch Kelly acquired both bachelor s and mas
ter s degrees at the University of Kansas in the early i88o s, and her first
book, With Hoops of Steel (1900), is a story of the cattle country. The
poets Harry Kemp and Claude McKay also studied at the university;
Kemp afterward worked as a harvest-hand in the Kansas wheat fields, and
a number of his poems have to do with the Kansas scene. Langston
Hughes, equally prominent with McKay among present-day Negro poets,
spent part of his boyhood in the "Mud Town" quarter of Topeka, and
later lived in Lawrence. Still another Negro writer of verse, Frank Mar
shall Davis, was a student at Kansas State College. Meridel Le Sueur is (
an expatriate Kansan whose short stories have frequently appeared in
prominent American magazines; her Corn Village, an unflattering sketch
of a small Kansas town, aroused no little discussion upon its appearance /
in Scribner s Magazine a few years ago. j
A notable landmark in the State s literary history is the Kansas Magazine,
which began publication in January 1872. William H. Carruth wrote in
1900: "It would strain the resources of rhetoric to express the mingled feel
ings of wonder and pride with which this literary meteor was viewed by
the people of the State." In its brief career of less than two years, under the
successive editorship of Capt. Henry King and James W. Steele, this first
Kansas Magazine did some excellent pioneer work in cultivating a regional
literature. The contributions of Henry King, designated "the first Kansas
story-teller" by William Allen White, depicted the real estate "boomers"
and young Civil War veterans then entering the State. The short stories
that James Steele wrote for the magazine under his own and the pen name
of "Deane Monahan" were later collected in a book called Sons of the
Border (1873). Contributors from outside the State included Walt Whit
man, John Hay, and James Redpath.
Steele revived the Kansas Magazine in 1886, but again gave it up two
years later; and a periodical appeared under the same name from 1909 to
1912. It was once more revived in 1933, and is now issued annually under
the editorship of Charles E. Rogers and Helen Hostetter of Kansas State
College.
<<<<<<<<<<<< <-+& >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Art
KANSAS art, like Kansas literature, was born amid the strife and
chaos of Territorial days. The first large group of settlers were
concerned primarily with politics and morality and had little time or
aptitude for painting and sculpture. Yet a few were impelled to record,
with motives similar to those of a traveler who photographs a scene he
wishes to preserve, the novel conditions in which they found themselves.
With little or no professional instruction, it is doubtful if they thought of
themselves as artists in the accepted sense. They left, however, valuable
c.rawings and paintings portraying important events of the Territorial
struggle.
Among such "primitives" in the collection of the State Historical So
ciety are the illustrations in the i2-volume diary of Samuel J. Reader, a
Topeka pioneer. Having taken a homestead near North Topeka in 1855,
Reader devoted himself, during the following 54 years, to a written and
pictorial account of his life in the State a narrative illustrated with pen
and ink drawings, and by oils and water colors. Reader was self-taught;
and although his figures are crudely drawn and awkwardly proportioned,
his perspective is sound and his handling of color is original and full of
variety. In his treatment of detail he strives for literal accuracy.
Some of the most eventful days in Kansas history are described in
Reader s diary. He was a soldier in the Free State Guards and fought in
the battle of Hickory Point. During the Civil War he saw action at the
Big Blue with the Second Regiment, Kansas Militia. Five of his illustra
tions, enlarged, hang in the museum of the State Historical Society. These
include oil paintings of his meeting with John Brown, the Second Regi
ment in action at the Big Blue, and the battle of Hickory Point. Two inci
dents of Price s raid are portrayed in water color: a Confederate cavalry
charge, and a group of Union prisoners with Confederate troops after the
battle.
Other sketches of pioneer scenes preserved at the historical museum are
the pen and ink drawings of John F. Ayr, J. E. Rice, and William Brey-
nrian. Ayr and Rice, who settled in Lawrence soon after its founding, made
MEMORIAL TO PIONEER WOMEN, TOPEKA
ART 139
several sketches of the early town. Breyman s drawing of the prison at
lecompton, where he and a score of other Free Staters were confined,
gives a graphic impression of the place.
The years immediately following the establishment of peace in Kansas
were almost barren in the fine arts. Kansans of the period found the task
cf wringing an existence from the stubborn soil or developing their mer
cantile enterprises too exacting for leisure interests. The spirit of the times
is symbolized in an amusing way by a canvas in the State Historical So
ciety s collection representing a mammoth watermelon from which a
f Armer, having climbed upon it with a ladder, has chopped out a plug as
1 irge as a wheelbarrow.
Also belonging to this period is a collection of scroll-saw woodwork by
trie late J. T. Glenn, pioneer resident in Wamego. Glenn used native black
walnut to fashion intricate bookcases, writing desks, and picture frames,
and miniature churches which served as clock cases. Several items in this
i nique group, which is on exhibition in the historical society, incorporate
fine filigreed effects, while others are somewhat overweighted with orna
mental curlicues.
The aboriginal Indians of Kansas produced baskets, bead work, and
pottery, and Indian craftsmen at the Potawatomi and Kickapoo reserva
tions in northeast Kansas still practice these arts. Many outstanding ex
amples of Indian artifacts and of arts and crafts have been collected in
Kansas museums, notably at the State university and Fort Hays Stafe
Teachers College.
Much of the success of the Kansas agricultural exhibit at the Philadel
phia Centennial Exposition of 1876 was due to Henry Worrall, its de
signer. Worrall s oil painting of the exhibit hangs in the State historical
museum.
There were a few attempts to stimulate the arts during the i88o s,
notably the organization in 1883 of the State Art Association. The asso
ciation aimed to establish a permanent art collection in Topeka, hold an
nual competitive exhibitions for Kansas artists, and maintain an art school.
The first loan exhibit was opened in the Topeka Public Library on March
1 6, 1885, and the first session of the school began the following year.
After a short time the school failed to attract students, membership in the
association dwindled, and the organization lapsed into inactivity. The art
collection, however, supplemented by recent additions, is still on exhibi
tion in the library at Topeka. Among its paintings, a realistic work by
Alfred Montgomery depicts a barrel, a scoop shovel, a partly-filled sack,
and a dozen ears of corn on a granary floor. Montgomery, whose extreme
140 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE*
literalness in rendering commonplace farm subjects aroused facetious com
ment among his contemporaries and earned him the title of "farmer-
painter," introduced art instruction into Topeka high schools in 1887.
His painting Down on the Farm, exhibited at the Paris Exposition of
1890, was later sold for $10,000. At the same exposition another Kansan,
John Douglas Patrick, was awarded a medal for his huge 9 by 12 foot
canvas entitled Brutality.
John Noble and George M. Stone were the first native-born artists to
win more than local recognition. Noble was born in Wichita, then a roar
ing frontier cow town. Many of his early paintings were nudes which
adorned the back bars of local saloons. One of these, Cleopatra at the Bath
was mutilated by Carry Nation in her famous raid on the Carey Hotel bar.
Noble s mature work was done in Paris and New York. Most popular are
his marine studies of the Brittany Coast and his paintings of the "magic
city"- New York. He was admitted to membership in the National
Academy of Design, an honor since bestowed on two other Kansans:
Henry Salem Hubbell, who studied in Paris under Whistler, Laurens, and
Constant; and Van Dearing Perrine, self-taught "original" of landscape?
painting.
George M. Stone, who died in 1931, was best known as a portrait
painter, although his Kansas landscapes, while somewhat academic, have
a good deal of distinction. The State commissioned him to paint man)
prominent Kansans. Stone also executed several murals and did historica
paintings dealing with Kansas past. Frederic Remington, noted painter
illustrator, and sculptor of Wild West genre, spent some time on a rancr
in Butler County. Here he is said to have obtained material for the work
that made him famous. Arthur Sinclair Covey lived in El Dorado for %
period ; his mural, The Spirit of the Prairies, painted for the Wichita City
Library, brought him wide recognition.
By the 1890 $ Kansas had grown sufficiently wealthy to replace many
of its frame structures with monumental stone buildings. Among the
artisans who came to the State were stone-carvers, including Joe Robaldc
Frazee, son of John Frazee, noted pioneer among American sculptors.
Frazee was employed by Sargent and Company, stone-cutters. The caps on
the Corinthian columns of the State capitol were carved by Jim Haider-
man, who also decorated the Veale Block, Seventh and Quincy Streets.
Heads and coiled dragons carved by John Deliew and George Ward on
the Shawnee County Courthouse (1896), also in Topeka, indicate a high
degree of artistic sensitivity. The ability of these craftsmen to imbue their
stonework with warmth and plasticity is further demonstrated in the
ART 141
classic male and female figures above the entrance to the Santa Fe Hospital
in the same city.
Kansas woodcarvers plied their craft during the i88o s and 1890*5 at
the Abilene plant of the Parker Amusement Company, one of the few
manufacturers of circus and carnival equipment in the country. Artisans
employed by the company carved prancing steeds for merry-go-rounds and
decorated circus wagons with bold rococco flourishes. The collection of the
company, now established at Leavenworth, includes a lion carved in 1880
;.nd a horse carved in 1890, both of white pine. These animals are done
nith great verve, nostrils widespread, manes flying, legs tensed to leap.
The sides of old-time circus wagons, now used to form the walls of sheds
at the Parker plant, are encrusted with involved carvings of white pine.
Hxperts have pronounced these designs exceedingly virile and free in
execution. Noteworthy among Kansas artisan-artists are the Lindsborg
H oodcarvers, whose portrait figurines are excellent in characterization.
It was in the 1890*5, too, that Birger Sandzen, Swedish artist and
teacher, arrived in Kansas, where he has since painted and lectured at
Bethany College, Lindsborg. It was largely through his efforts that Linds
borg has become an art center unique in the Middle West. As a painter,
Sandzen is best known for his individual interpretations of the scenery of
the Southwest. His technique derives from impressionism, and is marked
by a broad simplicity and a vivid utilization of pure color. His visits to the
Colorado Rockies and the New Mexico deserts have provided themes for
many of his etchings, lithographs, block prints, and water colors. Sandzen
is represented in leading American and European galleries, and his Linds
borg studio remains a gathering place for Midwestern artists.
In the present century, Kansas has been the home or birthplace of many
talented artists. Outstanding among these are John Steuart Curry and
Henry Varnum Poor. Curry was born in 1897 on a farm near Dunavant
in Jefferson County. He studied at the Chicago Art Institute for two years,
working his way as a bus boy. After several years as an illustrator, he went
to Paris and returned in 1927 to devote himself to a dramatic representa
tion of American experiences. With a sensibility steeped in the Midwest
and its people he has painted Baptism in Kansas, Kansas Stockman, Hogs
and Rattlesnakes, The Line Storm, Tornado, The Sun Dogs, Spring
Shower, The Gospel Train, and Return of Private Davis. The last three
are owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A brief tour with Ring-
ling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus provided the artist with material
for Flying Cad on as, acquired by the Whitney Museum, New York, and
other notable drawings and paintings of circus life. In 1933 he painted
John Steuart Curry
JOHN BROWN, DETAIL FROM MURAL IN CAPITOL, TOPEKA
two murals for the new Department of Justice Building, Washington, D. C.
Curry s rural baptisms, whirling tornadoes, and earthy barnyard scenes
have an almost savage quality which was not generally admired by
Kansans. There were a few, however, who felt that the artist s work de
served public encouragement. When Curry left the State in 1934 to be
come "artist in residence" at Wisconsin University, William Allen White
ruefully declared: "It takes something more than factories, something
more than crowded cities and towns, something more than per capita
wealth to make a civilization, and Kansas would be able to hold her head
a little higher if she could have taken John Curry under her wing."
White s statement began a newspaper campaign that rapidly created local
interest in Curry s art. In 1937 Curry received a $20,000 commission to
paint murals in the Kansas Capitol. This work, according to Curry, will
depict "the historical struggle of man with nature," and will require three
years for completion.
In contrast with Curry, whose art derives from contemporary life, Henry
Varnum Poor finds his inspiration in more traditional sources. Born in
Chapman in 1888 Poor has been termed "the artisan in the artist."
Though his studies in art did not achieve full scope until he was past
thirty, he is a good craftsman and prolific producer in painting, sculpture,
MUNICIPAL ART MUSEUM, WICHITA
and pottery; and his designed urns, houses, furniture, and tile work. Poor
is the leading American craftsman in ceramics. His pottery, done in the
difficult Persian technique which requires rapid glazing and prompt fir
ing, has been purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. With his
daughter Anne, Poor painted murals in the new Department of Justice
Building. The Byzantine ceiling of the Union Dime Savings Bank in New
York City is one of his notable tile decorations. His Fisher Boy hangs in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art and others of his paintings are in the
foremost American galleries. A resident of New York State for many
years, Poor frequently returns to Kansas. He is a close friend of Birger
Sandzen.
Bertram Hartman, Albert T. Reid, Kenneth Adams, Ward Lockwood,
and Aaron Douglass are artists of Kansas origin. Hartman began his
career at Junction City, where he decorated the walls of a local hotel with
scenes from Robin Hood. His paintings are in the collections of the Whit
ney Museum and the Brooklyn Museum, and he has done murals for the
New York State Tubercular Hospital. Reid, chiefly known as a cartoonist
144 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
and illustrator, was associated with the Reid-Stone School of Art, opened
at Topeka in 1902. His later work includes murals at the Sabetha post
office, depicting the development of mail transportation in Kansas from
the days of the pony express to the present. Adams and Lockwood are
prominent members of the Taos colony, New Mexico. Douglass, a Negro
born in Topeka in 1898, is well known as an easel and mural painter. A
student of Negro types, he has done murals for Bennett College, Fisk
University, the Sherman Hotel in Chicago, and the Hall of Negro Life
at the Texas Centennial Exposition.
Albert Bloch of Kansas University is a painter of considerable imagina
tion and sensitivity. He is represented in the Chicago Art Institute, the
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, and the Phillips Memorial Gallery, Wash
ington, D. C. His colleagues at the university include Karl Mattern, water
colorist, Raymond Eastwood, an authority on the technique of oil painting,
and Bernard Frazier, who has done distinctive sculptures and dioramas.
John Helm Jr., of the department of design at Kansas State College,
Manhattan, does etchings and water colors of the Kansan scene.
Merrell Gage, Bruce Moore, and Reginald Wentworth are the foremost
Kansan sculptors. Gage, a former pupil of Gutzon Borglum, reflects the
influence of his teacher in his Lincoln and Pioneer Women s Memorial on
the State capitol grounds. Also in Topeka are his Flight, in the foyer of
Memorial Hall, and in Mulvane Art Museum his plaster bust of John
Brown, The Flutist, and Mother and Child. Moore s Pelican Fountain,
designed for the city of Pratt, won the Speyer Memorial Prize in 1935, a
National Academy award. Reginald Wentworth s most recent work is the
panel above the entrance to the new high school at Russel, which depicts
an Indian raid of 1869.
Among local art institutions the Kansas Federation of Art, formed in
1932, has sponsored, together with other events, a noteworthy show of
batiks, jewelry, metalwork, and textile designs by Kansas craftsmen. C. A.
Seward (1884-1939), first director of the federation and its president in
1937, did etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs. He helped organize the
Prairie Printmakers in 1930. He was also active in the Wichita art group,
together with William Dickerson, painter, printmaker, and director of the
Wichita Art Association s art school.
The Topeka Art Group, organized in 1924, is fostered by the depart
ment of art at Washburn College. Wallace Baldinger, head of the depart
ment, and his associate, James A. Gilbert, are painters of local distinction.
Carl Bolmar, Topeka artist and critic, works in oils, water colors, and
ART 145
cnalk plates. He is employed by the Topeka State Journal, the last large
daily in Kansas to use chalk plate illustrations.
The formation of the Kansas unit of the Federal Art Project in 1936,
revealed a hitherto unsuspected reservoir of talent. Three hundred pic
tures by project artists have been placed on permanent exhibition; oils,
prints, and water colors have been loaned to fifty institutions; murals
have been painted for the Topeka High School, the State College, Man
hattan, and the University of Kansas, Lawrence. The Index of American
Design, a division of the Kansas Art Project, has unearthed, classified, and
sketched more than two hundred pieces of Americana.
In sum, Kansas art seems to have entered a period of indigenous
growth. A realistic attitude is in evidence among the younger artists, many
cf whom are inclined to the belief that man s art should in a large measure
he concerned with the conditions of his life. In this and in other respects
Kansas art participates in the general trend of Midwestern art. Benton of
Missouri, Wood of Iowa, and Curry of Kansas have outlined a regional
program which is certain to be taken into account by other artists.
Music and the Tkeater
in\IONEERS from New England, traveling westward in the i85o s,
ll fortified their spirits with the stirring and prophetic cadences of
Whittier s son of "The Kansas Emigrants," written for the first company
of emigrants and "sung when they started, sung as they rode, and sung
in the new home."
Temperamental differences in Northern and Southern character were
reflected in the pioneer Kansan s songs. New England settlers preferred
the old Puritan hymns, and the more popular of their secular ballads, such
as "Baby s Gone," "Empty Is the Cradle," and "Willie Has Gone with
the Angels," were of a definitely lugubrious nature; while such sprightly
sentimental ditties as "The Yellow Rose of Texas Beats the Belle of Ten
nessee" and "Sweet Violets, Fairer than All the Roses," were introduced
by settlers from the South.
The first decade of Kansas State history paralleled the War between the
States and the period of Reconstruction. Kansas soldiers entered their first
battle singing a contemporary song that breathed the Kansan spirit of that
day, when Gen. Nathaniel Lyon s volunteers from the newly created
State charged a superior force of Confederates at Wilson s Creek on
August 10, 1 86 1, singing "John Brown s Body." Lyon was killed and his
little command was driven from the field, but "John Brown s Body"
became one of the most potent battle songs of the war.
The thousands of settlers who entered Kansas in the decade following
the Civil War brought with them the popular tunes of the time, and to
accompany these they wrote ballads, some humorous, some plaintive, de
scribing the tribulations of pioneer life. Especially popular among such
ballads were "Frank Baker," sung to the tune of the "Irish Washer
woman," and "Kansas Land," sung to the tune of the old hymn "Beulah
Land." A specimen verse with chorus from the latter goes as follows:
We went away awhile last fall
A month or so and that was all;
We earned enough to last us through,
Up to this time we made it do.
146
MUSIC AND THE THEATEk 147
Chorus :
Oh, Kansas sun, hot Kansas sun,
As to the highest bluff we run
We look away across the plain
And wonder if it ne er will rain,
And as we look upon our corn
We think but little of our farm.
The first formal musical organization in Kansas was a band of four
pieces formed in 1854 by Forest Savage in the then newly founded town of
Lawrence. But the first serious approach to the art came in 1869 with
the founding of the Topeka Music Union. Mrs. Samuel J. Crawford, wife
of the Civil War Governor, was a leader of the organization, serving as
pianist at its recitals. The Modoc Club, one of the best known male
choruses in the Middle West, was organized at Topeka in 1876, and sub
sequently toured the country from coast to coast. The club is still active in
ihe capital city. A faculty member of Washburn College returned to
Topeka in 1878, after a year at Harvard, and organized what is said to be
the first college glee club west of the Mississippi.
"Home on the Range," composed in 1873, was the first widely popular
song of genuine Kansas origin. Dr. Brewster Higley, a homesteader on
Beaver Creek in Smith County, wrote the words, and Dan Kelly, who
lived near Harlan in the same county, composed the music.
Chalkley ("Chalk") M. Beeson, a Dodge City frontiersman and a tal
ented musician, became proprietor of the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge
City through a mortgage foreclosure in 1876. Determined to make his
establishment a center of culture as well as a rendezvous for thirsty cow-
punchers, he instructed his associate, Roy Drake, to provide the customers
with high class music. Drake hired Harry Adams, an itinerant musician,
and one "Professor" Miller, who had come West to teach music. With
these two and Beeson, Drake formed a creditable four-piece orchestra.
"Chalk" Beeson also helped to organize the Dodge City Cowboy Band,
which met for its first rehearsal on May 27, 1879. Soon after its formation
the band was financed by the local cattlemen s association, and each bands
man displayed on his broad-brimmed hat the cattle brand insignia of an
individual sponsor. The Cowboy Band achieved national renown in the
following decades, and appeared in most of the larger cities of the United
States. Attired in full cowboy regalia, it provided "Wild West" atmos
phere and a good quality of instrumental music.
Although music and the flowing bowl are traditionally allied, the pro
hibition movement added more to the music of Kansas (granted that
scraps of doggerel set to simple tunes may be called music) than did the
-**
W$M3i&t&*> - """. "
COWBOY BAND, DODGE CITY(1884)
fermented grape or the distilled corn. The Kansas Women s Christian
Temperance Union compiled lists of "battle hymns" which, during the
i88o s, were taught to children and included in programs at temperance
rallies. Seldom creative musicians, the dry crusaders were principally con
cerned with inspirational words, and in most instances borrowed the
melody from a convenient hymnal. Among the songs dear to militant
champions of prohibition were "We ll Turn Our Glasses Down," "Come
and Join Our Army/ and "We Are a Band of Soldiers."
Kansans who served in the World War sang the ubiquitous "Old Gray
Mare" and "There s a Long, Long Trail," but scarcely less popular were
the Rabelaisian strains of "Christopher Columbo" and "Glorious, Glori
ous," traditional favorites of the fraternity house. "The Dying Hobo,"
"Frankie and Johnny," "I ve Been Working on the Railroad," and other
ballads introduced by itinerant harvest hands in the pre-combine days,
were revived by khaki-clad Kansans whose grandsires in uniform had
chanted "John Brown s Body."
The Oratorio Society of Lindsborg, one of the country s famous choral
ensembles, was organized at Bethany College in 1882. The original choir
of forty voices has since grown to a chorus of five hundred. Annual pres-
MUSIC AND THE THEATER 149
entations of The Messiah and other great choral works attract thousands
of music lovers to this village on the remote Kansas prairie.
Encouraged by the response accorded the Oratorio Society of Lindsborg,
other Kansas colleges have developed a variety of music festivals. The
College of Emporia, Southwestern College, Bethel College, Baker Uni
versity, and the State Teachers Colleges at Hays, Emporia, and Pittsburg
hi ve all been active in this field. Music has become an established course
in the curriculum of every college in the State.
The departments of music in the high schools of Kansas have been
notably developed during recent years. The first accredited course of music
study in the secondary schools of any city in the United States was given
at Parsons in 1908. Later, Kansas was one of the first States to require
four years of college preparation for high school music instructors. Today
every high school in the State has one or more musical organizations.
Kansas is especially known throughout the Middle West for its music
contests, an Old World custom revived in Kansas through the influence
of the Swedes at Lindsborg and the Welsh at Emporia. Annual contests at
Hays, Emporia, Lawrence, Winfield, Lindsborg, and Pittsburg are at
tended by thousands of high school students and others. A recent out
growth of this activity is the county music festival, in which organizations
from county high schools meet in the chief towns or cities for a mass
presentation of musical programs, under the Hirection of conductors sup
plied by the colleges.
The knowledge and appreciation of music thus being fostered will
doubtless result in increased original composition. Though Kansas has not
yet gained much attention in this field, outstanding work has already been
accomplished. Dean Thurlow Lieurance, of Wichita, has won wide recog
nition for his interpretations of Indian music; Dr. Charles Skilton, of the
University of Kansas, is distinguished for his choral and orchestral works,
including several on American Indian themes; and Professor Carl Pryor,
also of the University of Kansas, has written many excellent instrumental
compositions. Of note in the concert and operatic field are Laura Towns-
Icy McCoy of Great Bend, Kathleen Kersting of Wichita, Harold B.
Challiss of Atchison, and Marian Talley formerly of Colby.
Karl Krueger, of Atchison, is the best known of Kansan conductors.
Formerly conductor of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Krueger re
turned to the Middle West in 1934 to form the Philharmonic Orchestra
of Kansas City, Missouri. Under his direction this latter group has devel
oped into an orchestra of national importance. In the summer of 1937,
150 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
Mr. Krueger served with notable success as guest conductor in Vienna,
Austria.
Since the advent of the "talkies," the dust on Kansas stage boards has
settled heavily. But in the heyday of the "opera house," the State was vis
ited by most of the leading theatrical troupes. Repertoire companies of the
iSyo s toured from Kansas City on the east to turbulent Dodge City on
the frontier. Prominent among these companies was the Louis Lord
Troupe, which, to judge from contemporary newspaper notices, was all
but worshiped by drama-hungry pioneers.
In Hays, Abilene, Dodge City (the "Cowboy Capital"), and other cat
tle towns, the entertainers performed in saloons and dance halls. Eddie
Foy made his first successful appearance at the Springer (Comique) Music:
Hall in Dodge City on July 15, 1878. Accompanying him on the same
bill were Belle Lamont, Jim Thompson, and Nola and Billie Forrest. Of
his engagement in Dodge City, Foy wrote in later years: "I wish I could
present to an audience of today an adequate picture of one of those old
western amusement halls. Writers and artists have tried to do it, the movies
have tried it, but all in vain the sounds are lacking the songs and pat
ter at one end, where the show began at eight o clock and continued until
long after midnight; the click and patter of poker chips, cards, dice,
wheels and other devices at the other end. . . . All around the room, up
above, a sort of mezzanine, ran a row of boxes and they were boxes, in
deed, as plain as a packing case where one might sit and drink and watch
the show."
Topeka, Atchison, Leavenworth, and other major cities in eastern Kan
sas saw most of the dramatic hits of the i88o s. In the Corinthian Hall at
Atchison Thomas W. Keene appeared in Richard 111, John T. Raymond
as Mark Twain s character of "Colonel Mulberry Sellers," and Mrs. Sam
uel W. Piercy in Deception. Troupes that visited Topeka and the chief
towns on the Missouri River included Mclntyre and Heath s minstrels,
and the "Anthony and Ellis Mammoth Ideal Uncle Tom s Cabin Com
pany" with Kate Parkington as Topsy.
Between 1890 and 1925, Topeka, Wichita, and other major cities were
on the regular circuit of road shows starring foremost actors or presenting
the most popular musical comedians. Topeka audiences saw Joseph Jef
ferson, Robert Mantell, and Frederick Ward in many of their best known
vehicles.
At present, partly because of its proximity to Kansas City, Missouri,
Topeka is visited by but one or two road shows a year. Wichita, farther
j MUSIC AND THE THEATER 151
removed from Kansas City, sees a larger number of legitimate stage pro
ductions. The stock company and the tent show, popular twenty-five years
or more ago, have been recently revived. Several companies play profitable
engagements in the larger cities, and during the summer months make a
tent show tour of the smaller towns.
The decline of the commercial theater in Kansas has been happily par
alleled by the rise of little theaters in the colleges and larger cities. Little
Theater units are active at Pratt, Liberal, Kinsley, Ulysses, Garden City,
Great Bend, Dodge City, and Hutchinson. A civic theater was organized
at Topeka in 1937. The Peter Pan Players, organized at Wichita in 1931
i nder the sponsorship of the American Association of University Women,
presents five plays for children each year, with casts restricted to children
in elementary schools.
Dramatic groups are active at Washburn College, Baker University,
Southwestern College, University of Kansas, Kansas State College, St.
Benedict s College, Mount St. Scholastica College, and the State Teachers
Colleges at Hays, Emporia, and Pittsburg. Outstanding productions have
been presented by the Kansas Players, of the University of Kansas; the
Gilson Players, of Emporia State Teachers College, directed by Franklin
Gilson; and the Twin College Players, of St. Benedict s College and
Mount St. Scholastica College.
Kansans of note in the contemporary theater include Fred Stone and
Hale Hamilton of Topeka, Howard Thompson of Paola, and Brock Pcm-
berton of Emporia. Pemberton, once a reporter on the Emporia Gazette,
has produced among other Broadway successes Enter Madame, Miss Lulu
Bett, Strictly Dishonorable, Ceiling Zero, and Personal Appearance. How
ard Thompson has written several musical comedies, the best known of
which are Little Jesse James and East Is West. One of the leading char
acters in Little Jesse James is "a girl from Oskaloosa, Kansas," and a song
in the same production is entitled "My Home Town in Kansas." Hale
Hamilton starred in George M. Cohan s Get-Rich-Ouick Wallingjord;
and he has appeared as a supporting player with James K. Hackett, E. H.
Sothern, and John Barrymore.
Fred Stone, comedian of stage and screen, spent his boyhood in North
Topeka. Old residents recall that he acted in amateur theatricals sponsored
by the Kansas Avenue Methodist Church. At the age of nine he stretched
a tight wire across his back yard to train for a career under the "big top."
A few years later he electrified North Side residents by walking across
Kansas Avenue on a wire fastened three stories high. Later he joined a
152 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
circus. His first success on the stage was in the role of the scarecrow in
The Wizard of Oz. With the late David Montgomery he formed the fa
mous team of Montgomery and Stone. In 1935 he appeared with his
daughter Paula in Sinclair Lewis s The Jay hawker, a play based on the
career of a distinguished citizen of Kansas, James H. Lane.
Architecture
pioneers who settled along the northeastern border of Kansas in
the 1850*5 found timber and stone with which to build their homes.
They set up log cabins or simple one-room houses of stone. Less often
they built tent-shaped structures of poles thatched with grass, called "hay
rouses." These were little more than "straws in the wind" and were aban-
coned as soon as possible, but they served their purpose as easily and
c uickly erected buildings. The first church services in Lawrence were held
in a hay house.
The settlers who pushed westward to the treeless Plains found no stone,
while the only timber was scrubby willow and cottonwood along the shal
low streams. Thus they were forced to build with the only material avail
able the earth itself. The dugout, a sod-covered hole, at one time out
numbered any other kind of dwelling in western Kansas. Sodhouses, or
"soddies," were built with heavy slabs of top soil bound together by roots
of growing buffalo grass. The "soddy" was box-like, squat, and dingy, its
roof pitched at no greater angle than was required to shed rain.
A few sodhouses were in use as late as 1938, but the rare soddy that
stands today is preserved largely because of its historical interest. There
are Kansans, however, who still remember how to build a soddy. In 1933,
when living quarters had to be provided for a Civilian Conservation Camp
stationed near Dodge City, soddy experts were found who built satisfac
tory barracks of earth.
Even after the first decades of settlement, permanent dwellings were
not designed in the contemporary Greek Revival style of the eastern sec
tions of the United States. Temple porticos, carved entablatures, and fluted
Doric columns were elaborations whose transplanting was precluded by
the rigors of the Kansas frontier. Practicality was the order of the times.
The four walls were unadorned save by openings to provide light and
entrance ; the roof was designed to shut out the elements ; reasonable com-
Jort was the ultimate aim of the builder.
The grim simplicity of early Kansan houses was not due to a lack of
aesthetic sense in their builders, but rather to the fact that there were few
A SOD RANCH HOUSE (1898)
skilled masons or carpenters in the territory. Sawmills and brickyards were
scarce, and the construction of the humblest dwelling involved prodigious
labors. Buildings of architectural interest were nevertheless erected. Fore
most among these scattered few is the old Planter s Hotel in Leavenworth,
built in 1856. It is a three-story brick structure ornamented with two ori
els, a porte-cochere, and a cornice trimmed with a double band of dentils.
Several frame houses built in the early i86o s in the ghost town of
Albany, in Nemaha County, reveal a definite New England influence. A
two-story structure beside the dusty road that was Main Street in the one
time village has a hip roof, small window panes, and an inset doorway.
A nearby farmhouse of similar design has a low-roofed addition at the
rear, with a deep porch under the eave. The design of these structures,
however, is not typical of the architecture in the State.
The construction of railroads through Kansas in the iSyo s enabled set
tlers to receive portable houses f.o.b. They consisted of a framework on
which wide planks were nailed; the cracks were then sealed with strips
and the plank roof was usually covered with tarpaper. Meagerly furnished,
portable houses were sufficiently comfortable for bachelors proving home
stead claims, and for merchants intent on garnering quick profits in boom
ARCHITECTURE 155
towns. Sometimes when the permanency of a prairie settlement became
assured, entire blocks of portable houses were set afire and destroyed to
make way for substantial buildings.
The German-Russian immigrants who settled in Rush and Ellis counties
in 1875 at first made their homes in board "tents," but these makeshifts
were soon discarded in favor of the somewhat less crude dugout and sod-
house. For a while many German-Russians clung to the European custom
of Jiving in compact villages where they kept their stock, driving to and
from the fields each day. The German-Russians in time became thoroughly
Americanized. Today their villages are like other prairie communities, ex
cept for the large churches, so favored by these people. Their homes inva
riably stand in the shadows of lofty spires that rise from the land like
gigantic carpet tacks. Poetically termed "Cathedrals of the Plains," these
edifices are adorned with modified Gothic, Romanesque, and Byzantine
details.
In the i88o s the more prosperous Kansans replaced their plain houses
with ornate structures weighted down with undigested Old World styles.
Mansard roofs bristled with wrought iron, towers sprouted from saw
tooth gables, and sharp-eaved dormer windows peeped coyly from beneath
gingerbread cornices. Many of these structures, their rampant decorations
antithetic to the current trend for simplicity and functionalism, are still
standing in Topeka, Lawrence, Leavenworth, and Atchison. An architect,
viewing the Victorian mansions of Atchison, once remarked, "It s the re
sult of a Kansas cyclone and nobody ever did anything about it."
Many courthouses built in the eighties and nineties are Richardsonian-
Romanesque in design. The Riley County Courthouse at Manhattan and
the Harvey County Courthouse at Newton, with almost identical exteriors,
are outstanding examples of this style of architecture. Plans for these and
many other courthouses of this period were bought by county commis
sioners from salesmen who went through the State with folders containing
a dozen or more courthouse designs, all of which were influenced by
Richardson.
The State Capitol at Topeka is of neoclassic design, with a hexastyle
portico, a balustrade running the length of the roof, and pilastered pedi
ments along the side walls. E. Townsend Mix prepared the original plan.
John G. Haskell, who also designed the Cottonwood Falls Courthouse,
superintended the construction of the first or east wing, completed in
1866. The remaining three wings, built at intervals between 1866-1903
and joined cross-wise, follow the general plan of the east wing. The center
of the structure is crowned with a lofty copper-covered dome. The capitol,
156 THE STATE AND ITS PEOPLE
whose design was inspired by that of the National Capitol, has been pic
turesquely though not entirely accurately described as "the farthest western
advance of Graeco-Roman culture."
Since 1915 many of the old county courthouses have been replaced by
modern structures. Noteworthy among these is the neoclassic Wyandotte
County Courthouse at Kansas City. It is a five-story temple- like building
with hexastyle portico, elaborate cornice ornamented with rococo flour
ishes, and an attic story, decorated with swags. The building was designed
by Wight and Wight of Kansas City, Missouri.
Representative of the late 1920 $, when communities vied with each
other in building monumental public schools, is the Topeka Central High
School, designed by T. R. Griest of that city. It is a slender three-story
structure of brick, trimmed with stone, its three wings forming a half
hexagon. A tall Gothic tower rises above the central wing. Less striking
architecturally, but of greater bulk, is the Wyandotte High School in Kan
sas City, a huge H-shaped building embellished with Lombardic-Roman-
esque detail. Sculptures by Emil Robert Zettler, based on Indian forms,
adorn the facades. The school was designed by Hamilton, Fellows, and
Nedved of Chicago, in association with Joseph W. Radotinsky of Kansas
City, Kansas.
The five-story Reno County Courthouse, erected in 1930, with its set
backs and angular recesses above the main doorway, is a radical departure
from traditional architecture. It was designed by W. E. Hulse of Hutchin-
son, Kansas. The floor plan is unusual in its high-ceilinged main room,
surrounded by a mezzanine similar to that of banking houses.
A wave of school construction, motivated principally by aid from the
Federal Government, has swept across the State since 1930. The design of
the high school at Russell, completed in 1938, follows the principles of
the "form and functionalists," set forth in the late nineteenth century by
Louis Sullivan and the Chicago School, and is a notable example of the
"prairie" style, with both plan and structural material adapted to the local
environment. It is a three-story rectangular building of local limestone,
with a low-pitched tile roof. Except for the entrance, flanked by fluted
piers and surmounted by a sculptured panel, the structure is bare of adorn
ment. A. R. Mann of Hutchinson was the architect.
The Wichita High School, North, is another excellent example of the
prairie style of architecture. Glenn Thomas was the architect. It is a buff
brick building with a red tile roof, and lines similar to those of the State
Capitol at Lincoln, Nebraska. A square tower 90 feet high is banded with
ceramic panels depicting buffaloes and Indians in shades of red, blue,
ARCHITECTURE 157
brown, and yellow. The green glazed tower windows are each ornamented
with a red arrow; the main entrance is decorated with polychrome and
terra cotta figures designed by Bruce Moore.
Polychrome sculptures, depicting Indian arts, crafts, and environments,
decorate the buff walls of the Wichita Art Museum, a cast stone structure
of modern design. Clarence S. Stein, of New York City, was the architect ;
the decorations are by Lee Lawrie. The angular mass of the exterior, aug
mented by juxtaposed rectangular planes, produces a studied play of light
and shadow.
Two of the finest business structures in Kansas the National Bank
Building and the Capitol Building and Loan Association Building face
each other across Kansas Avenue in Topeka. The 1 4-story bank, of mod
ern set-back design, is the tallest business structure in Topeka. It was de
signed by Thomas W. Williamson & Company, of Topeka. The loan asso
ciation building is a six-story structure of tan brick with a sharp-gabled
roof of red tile. The piers and finials of the south and west facades are
decorated with terra cotta sculptures which symbolize in sunflowers,
sheaves of wheat, and heroic figures, the pioneering phase of Kansas his
tory. The building was designed by George Grant Elmslie; the decorations
are the work of Emil Robert Zettler.
The development of residential architecture in Kansas is not unlike that
of any other city in the Middle West. The typical Kansas house is a one-
or two-story frame structure with a large front porch that is often screened
or trellised. The Kansas climate, however, has begun to exert a noticeable
influence on housing construction. Sleeping-porch additions in increasing
number give comfort for sultry summer nights. Indeed, one-story towers,
open on all sides, have been added to otherwise conventional residences.
Unlike the ornate, bracketed, and conical towers of the i88o s these struc
tures are utilitarian in appearance.
Virtually all contemporary house styles are represented in the restricted
residential areas of Kansas cities. Dutch-Colonial bungalows, trim English
cottages, and adaptations of French and Italian Renaissance villas stand
beside wide-porticoed post-Colonial houses. Residences that stress form,
function, and material with equal emphasis are comparatively rare. Note
worthy in this connection is the Wichita home of Henry J. Allen, de
signed by Frank Lloyd Wright. An irregular ell of bufT brick with leaded
windows and a low tile roof, the structure appears to be a natural out
growth of the slope on which it stands.
The typical Kansan farmhouse is a one- or two-story frame structure
that resembles the urban dwelling in almost every detail except the porch.
HOME OF HENRY J. ALLEN, WICHITA
In summer the front porch of a city house is suitably furnished for out
door living, but the front porch of the average farmhouse is seldom used.
It is often sparely constructed and scarcely ever built to the height and
width of the facade as are many porches of city dwellings.
Reflecting the chief industries of the region, the most prominent struc
tures on the country skyline are the large wood and stone barns of the
cattle-raising sections; flat-sided grain elevators of wood, concrete, or
sheet metal in the wheat-growing lands ; and concrete silos that look like
stubs of gray chalk dotting the dairying areas. The size and shape of these
structures are entirely utilitarian the barns spread wide to receive stores
of hay; the tall grain elevators, commonly known as "prairie skyscrapers,"
supply the gravity required for rapid loading of grain; and the tubular
silos permit the compact storage that a structure with corners would not
allow, thereby lessening the spoilage caused by exposure to air.
The elevators and grain storage bins at Kansas City and other wheat
centers in the State are austere examples of functional design. These
buildings form huge upright "L s" on the plain. The vertical arm consists
of the elevator, its block-like mass pitted by small square windows. The
horizontal arm at the base of the elevator consists of tubular storage bins
whose curved sides resemble the folds in a giant cartridge belt.
PART II
Cities and Towns
Arkansas City
Railroad Stations: 5th Ave. and E St. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.; 6th
and Chestnut Sts. for St. Louis & San Francisco R.R.; 2nd and Monroe Sts. for
Midland Valley R.R.; Summit and Tyler Sts. for Missouri Pacific R.R.
Bus Stations: SW. corner Summit and Chestnut Sts. for Santa Fe Trail, southern
Kansas, and Red Ball Lines.
Taxis: 24-hour service to all parts of city and outlying districts; fare io0 per person
for 1 8 blocks.
Accommodations: Three hotels, two tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, City Building, NE. corner ist and
Central Sts.
Motion Picture Houses: Three.
Golf: 9-hole municipal course in Municipal Park, N. end of Summit St.; greens
fee 250.
Swimming: Municipal Park.
Annual Events: Arkalalah Hallowe en festival, sponsored by business men.
ARKANSAS CITY (1,075 a ^-> J 3>94^ PP-) pronounced Ar-kan -sas,
three miles north of the Oklahoma border at the confluence of the Walnut
and Arkansas Rivers, is a shipping and refining center for oil fields at the
north, east, and south. Long lines of tank cars emerge from the city on its
four railroads; freight yards are piled high with incoming shipments of
oil machinery and pipeline supplies. The local oil refinery has a daily ca
pacity of 20,000 barrels.
The rivers, following almost parallel courses to their junction, flank
the city on the east and west. The business district, atop a hill between the
two streams, has modern shops with tile facades, ana older structures of
native limestone. Summit Street, the main thoroughfare, begins in bottom
lands along the Arkansas, climbs to the business section, descends through
a residential area on the opposite slope, and trails off in farming country
at the north. Summit Street shop windows, in addition to the usual dis
plays, also feature various colored trinkets to catch the eye of the Indians.
Because the city caters to oil areas in two States, Oklahoma license plates
are almost as numerous along Summit Street as those of Kansas.
The founders of Arkansas City arrived at the site on January i, 1870.
The settlement, platted the same year, was named Walnut City. It was soon
renamed Adelphi, and subsequently Creswell in honor of the Postmaster
General in President Grant s cabinet. The community was incorporated as
a city under its present name on June 10, 1872.
Although surrounded by bands of hostile Indians, the settlement was
unmolested. This immunity was earned largely through the efforts of
Henry Norton, who arrived in 1870. His honesty in dealing with the In-
161
162 CITIES AND TOWNS
dians immediately won their friendship and, eventually, their unreserved
confidence. He went to their villages unaccompanied and was permitted
to see their religious ceremonies. At his invitation, the Indians visited the
settlement frequently, buying supplies, and trading furs and horses. Occa
sionally they came in their finest regalia and entertained the settlers with
tribal songs and dances. In payment the whites gave them colored beads,
tasseled handbags, plumed hats, and barbecued meat.
By the end of 1870 the settlement boasted a cluster of stores, a score
of houses, two sawmills, and a newspaper, the Arkansas City Traveler.
Founded by M. G. Mains, this sheet was named for the old fiddle tune,
"The Arkansas Traveler," and early issues carried a fiddle below the mast
head. The community in these years was a rendezvous for horse thieves
who stole stock from settlers in Kansas and drove the animals into Okla
homa. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, then United States Marshal, made the vicinity
his headquarters during the early seventies. At times, however, settlers ad
ministered the law as indicated in the following item from the Arkansas
Valley Democrat: "S. P. U. s take notice: There will be a meeting of the
Stock Protection Union this evening at the Bland School House. Every
member is requested to be present as business of great importance is to be
transacted. Don t fail to come out men. We have work to do."
C. M. Scott of the Traveler, soon afterwards hinted poetically at the
nature of the work done by the Stock Protective Union with:
He found a rope and picked it up,
And walked with it away
It chanced that on the other end,
A horse was hitched, they say;
They found a tree and tied a rope
Unto a swinging limb
It happened that the other end
Was somehow hitched to him.
The steamboat Aunt Sally, first to ascend the Arkansas River to Arkan
sas City, arrived on a Sunday morning in June 1878. Services were in
progress at the village church, but at the firs% sound of the steamer whistle
the pastor and the congregation rushed out to welcome the boat. Local
merchants, intent on developing an inland shipping point, promptly pur
chased the Kansas Miller. On its first trip the vessel grounded on a sand
bar. Subsequent journeys were unsuccessful and the Kansas Miller, re
named the Walnut Belle, was converted into a pleasure boat.
The growth of Arkansas City was stimulated in the i88o s by the dis
covery of gold in the region. Assays indicated rich deposits and the com
munity seethed with activity. Mining operations revealed but little metal
and the boom soon subsided.
When the first of the Cherokee lands in Oklahoma Territory was opened
in 1889, hundreds of settlers made the run from Arkansas City. Four
years later the Cherokee Strip that land between the original southern
border of Kansas and the corrected southern border (see HISTORY )-
was opened to settlers. In the late summer of 1893 between 50,000 and
ARKANSAS CITY 163
60,000 people swarmed into Arkansas City, which at that time had ap
proximately 5,000 inhabitants. On the day of the rush, September 16,
1893, the streets were deserted by 7 a.m. Those who did not participate
gathered at the south end of town to watch the excitement.
Afoot, on horse, in heavy lumber wagons, buggies, covered wagons, and
all manner of horse-drawn vehicles, the settlers lined up to await the gun
shot which signified that the Strip was open. Impatient settlers inspected
wagon wheels, harness, and saddles in a last-minute checkup. At high
noon came the signal and the boomers dashed across the line. For an in
stant the row held unbroken and then, as settlers on fast horses outdis
tanced the others, it splintered into a tangle of wagons, buggies, and
shouting drivers.
By the beginning of the present century Arkansas City had lost its fron
tier aspect and had become a conventional market town. The discovery of
oil nearby in 1914 and in the post-War years altered the economic course
of the city. Indians, made rich by wells brought in on their lands in
northern Oklahoma, came to Arkansas City to splurge. They came by
train, on horseback, or even on foot, and returned to their homes in
gleaming new automobiles piled high with gaudy wares. Not a few of the
cars were purchased because of a tricky gadget on the dashboard or a
chrome figurine on the radiator cap.
Two decades of wealth, however, have scarcely changed the outward
appearance of the Indians in the region. Apart from an occasional giant
diamond on a rough brown hand, or a massive gold watch-chain dangling
from a bright-colored shirtfront, there are no marks to distinguish the rich
from the poor. The shabbiest Indian may, as residents put it, "own half
of Oklahoma."
Arkansas City has two flour mills, a meat packing plant, foundries,
creameries, a sand and gravel plant, overall factories, and an oil field ma
chine shop.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The W. E. COLLINS HOUSE (private), 315 S. B St., a one-story
frame structure, is a tribute to W. E. Collins, a fantastic promoter com
pared by Kansans to the Col. Mulberry Sellers of Mark Twain s Gilded
Age. Collins, by means of an artful tongue and a flair for baby-kissing,
convinced local citizens in the eighties that he had "wide influence" in the
Senate and House of Representatives. When he offered to visit Washing
ton, D. C, and exert his power on behalf of the backward river village,
the delighted citizens gave him this house, six lots, and paid his traveling
expenses. His subsequent lobbying was unsuccessful, but a glib explana
tion of his failure enabled him to remain in the good graces of the towns
people when he returned.
HIGH BLUFF, E. end of Madison Ave., on the E. bank of the Wal
nut River was the CAMPING PLACE OF BUFFALO BILL CODY and a party
of approximately half a hundred cavalrymen when they patrolled the bor
der in 1869 and 1870. The bluff and area immediately surrounding was
164 CITIES AND TOWNS
formerly the property of a Cherokee Indian, Two-Boys-Stray-Shadow, or
James Hightower, as he was more commonly known. In this wooded re
gion two old Indian pole trails met. The two trails, the Rosebud and the
Arrowhead, went out of use shortly after the white men settled in the
region but faint pole tracks remain at the top of the bluff today.
NATURAL BRIDGE, at the base of the bluff, is formed by two huge
rocks that arch over a spring. On a limestone boulder beneath the arch are
the letters "B. B.," Buffalo Bills s initials carved in 1869. A small star
separates the two letters.
The KANOTEX REFINERY (open by permission of superintend
ent), M and Tyler Sts., employs approximately 250 men and has a capacity
of between 15,000 and 20,000 barrels of oil daily. The plant manufac
tures automobile lubricants and gasoline.
-<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <-<-& >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Atchison
Railroad Stations: Union Depot, 2nd and Main Sts., for Atchison Topeka & Santa
Fe Ry., Chicago Burlington & Quincy R.R., Missouri Pacific R.R., and Chicago
Rock Island & Pacific Ry.
Bus Station: 120 N. 5th St. for Missouri Pacific Trailways.
Taxis: Fare io0.
Traffic Regulations: Stop signs at principal intersections. Speed limit 25 miles per
hour.
Accommodations: Four hotels; boarding houses, tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 4th St. entrance, Y.M.C.A. Bldg.,
N.E. corner 4th and Commercial Sts.
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Memorial Hall (Soldiers and Sailors Memo
rial), 819 Commercial St., occasional road shows. Three motion picture houses.
Athletics: Amelia Earhart stadium and athletic field, i4th and Atchison Sts.; Mis
souri Pacific baseball grounds, i4th and Utah Sts.; St. Benedict s College field for
intercollegiate sports.
Swimming: Lions pool in summer, i2th and Commercial Sts. Y.M.C.A. indoor
pool, 321 Commercial St., open for men Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun.; for women
Tues., Thurs.
Tennis: Shelly Park, i6th and Commercial Sts.; Reisner Park, loth and Kearney
Sts.; four courts at 8th and Santa Fe Sts.; one at 5th and R Sts.; one at 8th and
Mound Sts.
Golf: Forest Hills Course, 0.25 m. W. on US 73, 9 holes, greens fee 50^.
Ice Skating: Jackson Park.
Boxing: (Intercollegiate) St. Benedict s College gymnasium; occasional professional
boxing, Memorial Hall, 819 Commercial St.
Annual Events: Automobile Industrial Show, Memorial Hall, March; High School
band concerts, 8th and Santa Fe Sts., every Wed. night during June and July; St.
Benedict s College and interscholastic football games, Oct.-Nov.; American Legion
Armistice Day celebration, Memorial Hall ; Music Week, presented by grade school
children during Christmas Week, Memorial Hall.
ATCHISON (795 alt., 13,024 pop.), on the west bank of the Missouri
River in a vast amphitheater gouged out during the glacial epoch, is sur
rounded by low hills. This staid little industrial city is rich in historic in
terest and proud of the nationally famous personages who have claimed
it as their birthplace or former home.
Atchison was laid out with strict attention to symmetry, its streets being
straight and evenly platted. In the narrow valley of White Clay Creek, a
tributary of the Missouri River, that forms a natural dividing line be
tween the north and south residential districts, are the retail, industrial,
and wholesale districts, and the railroad yards. The stream, where it runs
through the city, is confined in a large storm sewer. Old elms and broad,
well-kept lawns add charm to the residential districts.
While the residential architecture of Atchison clings to the traditional
165
166 CITIES AND TOWNS
styles of another era, public and commercial architecture follows contem
porary trends. In downtown Atchison few of the historic buildings re
main. With the exception of two five-story buildings the Hotel Atchison
and a modern office building the majority of business houses are modest
two-story structures, some with modern fronts. Some of the industrial
plants and business establishments date back to the i88o s. A bank, organ
ized in 1859 has a slogan "Older than the State of Kansas," and the Blair
Flour Mill was established in 1866.
Negro residents, who form nearly 10 per cent of the population, are not
segregated, although there is a small district of modest frame dwellings
on the edge of a bluff north and east of the business district that is inhab
ited almost exclusively by Negroes. A considerable number of the more
prosperous live in comfortable modern homes scattered throughout the
residential sections. Negroes are represented in most of the trades and
professions.
From 1875 to 1938 a toll bridge spanning the Missouri River was the
only connecting link with the Missouri side of the stream. It was replaced
by a free bridge constructed as a PWA project and opened to traffic July
2, 1938.
Recorded history goes back to 1724, when the expedition of M. de
Bourgmont, military commander of the French colony of Louisiana,
crossed what is now Atchison County to establish friendly trade relations
with the Indians of the Platte region. Francois Marie Perrin du Lac, an
other French explorer, passed through in 1802-1803 and his journal tells
of finding stones that he carried away to be analyzed. Although he lost
them, the stones are believed to have been iron ore.
Lewis and Clark while encamped on Independence Creek six miles
north of Atchison, were the first to celebrate Independence Day on Kansas
soil. On July 4, 1804 they fired a salute in observance of the occasion and
issued an additional gill of whiskey to the men.
In the winter of 1818, a detachment of soldiers, members of the First
Rifle Regiment of Maj. Stephen H. Long s Yellowstone expedition estab
lished the first military post in Kansas on a large island in the river six
miles south of Atchison. French trappers had previously discovered this
island and christened it Isle au Vache (Cow Island). When Major Long
joined the detachment in July 1819, he brought the first river steamboats
seen in this section. Many members of this expedition were prominent in
the development of the West. Maj. John O Fallen became one of the
wealthiest and most influential leaders of St. Louis, Mo., and a private,
Bennett Riley, became military Governor of California and was honored
by having Fort Riley (see Tour 3) named for him.
A council was called for August 24, 1819 after the Indians fired on the
soldiers encamped on Cow Island. At the last moment, several chiefs re
fused to attend because of their disagreement as to precedence in rank, but
peace was declared, according to one account, rather "because of the gun
fire, rocket and flare displays, and flag hoisting, than because of Major
O Fallon s eloquence."
By 1850 the California gold rush and the general western trek had
FREE BRIDGE, ATCHISON
brought settlers to this desirable river landing. Most of the homesteaders
were anti-slavery but the Missouri settlers determined to use Atchison as
a wedge in making Kansas a slave State. They filed claims there for the
privilege of voting and kept the community in a constant state of unrest.
They even named the city in honor of an ardent slavery advocate, David
R. Atchison, United States Senator from Missouri, and, at one time, Act
ing Vice President of the United States. Although he was not a Kansan,
Atchison attended the celebration for the opening of the townsite, and in
his speech, exhibited his broad tolerance by admitting that "some North
erners are fairly worthy men who wouldn t steal a nigger themselves."
The city was incorporated August 30, 1855, by a special act of the ter
ritorial legislature, and the toss of a coin decided the first mayor. At this
time the Southerners raised $400 to start their newspaper, the Squatter
Sovereign, a vehement champion of slavery, which fought so bitterly with
the Free State paper that a duel between the two editors appeared inevi
table. Indeed, the editor of the Sovereign issued a challenge, but his rival
refused to accept it.
The drifting population of the 1850 $ and i86o s contributed to the
lawlessness that characterized the ribald frontier days. The first minister
l68 CITIES AND TOWNS
to come to Atchison (1855) l st m o st of his audience to a chuck-a-luck
game across the street. The Reverend Pardee Butler, a Free State minister,
attempted to reform the city in the 1850 $ and, for his efforts, was re
warded with a lone and hazardous voyage on a raft down the "Big
Muddy." Ignoring the threats of his attackers, he returned to Atchison a
few months later, and narrowly escaped hanging. According to the min
ister s subsequent report of the proceedings, "after exposing me to every
sort of indignity, they stripped me to the waist, covered my body with tar,
and then for want of feathers, applied cotton wool. Then they sent me
naked upon the prairies."
The Northerners, however, gained in power and by 1857 their arro
gance led to violence. Some of them purchased the Sovereign and com
pletely reversed its policies. Others began to pilfer from Missourians in
the hills across the river.
John Brown, Free State protagonist, also figured in Atchison s history.
Hearing that Brown was traveling nearby in 1857, a group of Southern
sympathizers went out to capture his party, but were captured instead.
Brown ordered one of the prisoners to pray.
"I only know, Now I lay me . . . the man objected.
"Then say it!" Brown commanded, and the frightened prisoner knelt
and recited the child s prayer.
Though they remained but two years, the Mormons, an independent
group, established the first large settlement in 1855. Their farm, four
miles west of the city on the south side of US 73, was enclosed by ditches,
which have been obliterated by cultivation and erosion. This encircling
moat was used to prevent cattle from straying.
Lincoln visited Atchison December 2, 1859, and addressed a group
here, using the same speech with which he won the Presidency later at
Cooper s Hall in New York City. The Atchison Champion, published by
John A. Martin, did not report the visit because the editor, like most Kan
sas Republicans, was supporting Seward. Even the man who introduced
him had to refer to his notes before naming a "Mr. A. Lincoln." But
Lincoln won his audience, although it consisted mostly of hecklers and
the curious. It was reported that he admonished his audience with these
words: "You cannot secede from the Union! If you do, you will hang as
surely as John Brown hanged today."
From Atchison in 1859 the first telegraph message from the West to
the East was dispatched and in the same year the city achieved the dis
tinction of being the first west of the Mississippi to have direct connection
with St. Louis and the East. At the first city council meeting, it was de
cided to issue $100,000 in bonds to establish a railroad from St. Joseph,
Mo., to Atchison, 15 miles west of any other railroad point. A charter was
obtained from the Missouri legislature and in the winter of 1859-1860
the new line was completed and in operation.
With the advantage of a good steamboat landing and the best wagon
road leading West, Atchison flourished from the first. Early day trail and
river traffic was tremendous. The city directory of 1860 casually remarked
that the entire trade carried on by private enterprise with Utah and the
ATCHISON 169
forts was from Atchison. In 1862 Ben Holladay bought the equipment of
the bankrupt Russell, Waddell & Majors Freighting Company and moved
its headquarters from Leavenworth to Atchison. At one time, following
its organization in 1856, the company boasted 6,000 teamsters, 50,000
head of oxen, and more than 5,000 wagons. According to the estimate of
the original company, they carried 21 million tons of freight through
Atchison. Sometimes as many as 1,600 wagons stopped here in a single
night. Butterfield s Overland Dispatch, established in Atchison in 1864,
was one of the most important freighters, having 55 wagonmasters, 1,500
drivers, 1,200 mules, and 9,600 head of oxen. Holladay acquired Butter-
field s Dispatch in 1866.
Carrying the mails from Atchison for the West on the overland stages
was a million-dollar business. Mail coaches departing daily took 17 days
to make the round trip from Atchison to Denver. Postage was $5 an ounce
and the finest of tissue was fashionable as writing paper.
The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway was another local enterprise.
Ambitious to become the eastern terminus for a great south and west sys
tem, the municipality voted a bond issue of $500,000 as a basis for the
venture, and in 1859 a company was incorporated by an act of the terri
torial legislature. Construction was delayed, however, and it was not until
1872 that the road to Topeka and Wichita opened, providing the first unit
of a great railway system. Other roads were established and Atchison de
veloped into an important railroad center.
In 1880 the city reached the peak of a steady growth in population and
industry. It had three breweries, which were closed by State prohibition in
1881, two flour mills, railroad shops, and packing houses. Since 1900, it
has become important as a wholesale and jobbing center. The city ranks
fourth in Kansas and tenth in the United States in the production of hard
wheat flour, three mills having a combined capacity of 5,600 barrels a
day. A foundry established in 1871 is now one of the largest concerns in
the United States exclusively engaged in the manufacture of locomotive
parts. Atchison s industrial output also includes overalls, leather goods,
plumbing fixtures, and processed eggs and poultry. The newest industry,
the result of several years of research and experimentation, is the manu
facture of industrial alcohol for motor fuel.
The two spaces reserved for Kansas in Statuary Hall in the Capitol at
Washington, D. C, are occupied by statues of Atchison men John J.
Ingalls, author and United States Senator, and George Washington Click,
a Kansas Governor and national leader in the Democratic party. Atchison
was the birthplace of Amelia Earhart Putnam, the noted aviatrix; Maj.
Gen. Harry A. Smith, a World War commander, who received several
decorations for bravery, and later was commandant at Fort Leavenworth ;
and Mateel Howe Farnham, the novelist daughter of Ed Howe, who won
a $10,000 prize offered by the Pictorial Review Magazine and Dodd, Mead
& Company, publishers, with her book, Rebellion.
CITIES AND TOWNS
POINTS OF INTEREST
The SITE OF THE OLD MAYFLOWER HOUSE, SE. corner 2nd
and Main Sts., is occupied by the Union Depot. The hotel, built in 1857-
1858, was an important starting place for stagecoaches traveling into the
West.
The SITE OF THE MASSASOIT HOUSE, 201 Main St., where dis
tinguished visitors were entertained in the early days, is occupied by a
wholesale drug company. Lincoln spent a night in the hotel after making
a campaign speech. Fugitive slaves were hidden in the old hostelry during
the days of conflict, and it was there that Horace Greeley ate his first din
ner in Kansas.
In a tiny PARK, Main St. between 3rd and 4th Sts., adjoining the
depot on the west, is a stone marker that commemorates the visit of the
Lewis and Clark expedition, July 4, 1804.
The LOCOMOTIVE FINISHED MATERIAL PLANT (open 8-5,
weekdays), E. end of Park St., is the only plant of its kind in Kansas and
one of the largest in the United States. Established as a foundry in 1871
by John Seaton, the plant has been engaged since 1906 in the manufac
ture of locomotive parts. Material is sold to nearly every railroad in the
United States and to railroad companies in Mexico, Japan, and several
European countries. The plant employs an average of 400 men.
An OLD BUILDING (open 8-5 weekdays), NW. corner 4th and
Commercial Sts., housed the first telegraph office. It was from this office
that the first telegraphic message was sent from the West to the East in
1859. The building, a three-story structure of brick painted yellow, erected
in 1858, is occupied by law and real estate offices.
PIONEER HALL (open 8-5 weekdays), NE. corner N. 4th St. and
Kansas Ave., a two-story brick building built in 1872, has served a variety
of purposes. It housed the first congregation of the Christian Church of
Atchison, organized in 1882, and served as a civic hall and headquarters
for a volunteer fire department. The building, now used by a Negro club,
has not been altered.
The BIRTHPLACE OF AMELIA EARHART PUTMAN (private),
SW. corner Santa Fe St. and N. Terrace, a two-story brick and frame
house of Victorian design, overlooks the Missouri River from the crest of
a bluff. It was in this house, now occupied by another family, that the
noted flyer spent most of her childhood with her grandparents. Former
playmates recall the aviatrix as a studious child who, in moments of relax
ation, liked to play Indian or go on "make-believe" trips in an old-fash
ioned carriage in a neighbor s barn.
The ATCHISON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, SW. corner N. 5th and
Parallel Sts., completed in 1897, is a three-story limestone structure with
a clock tower, designed in the Romanesque style by George P. Washburn
of Ottawa, Kans.
A marker on the lawn commemorates the address made by Lincoln De
cember 2, 1859, although the speech actually was delivered in a Methodist
Church on Parallel Street between 5th and 6th Streets.
ATCHISON 171
The W. P. WAGGENER HOME (private), 819 N. 4th St., is a
good example of the pretentious architecture of the i88o s and 1890 $.
Built in 1885 by the late Balie P. Waggener, father of W. P. Waggener,
the three-story brick building has four porches and an arched main en
trance. Typical of the architectural furbelows of the period are two cop
per griffins on the ridge of the roof.
A law library, on the third floor, has approximately 10,000 volumes in
cluding the statutes of every State and Territory.
ST. BENEDICT S COLLEGE (campus open at all hours), NE. corner
N. 2nd and Division Sts., is a Catholic institution for young men, with
a spacious, well-kept campus skirting the Missouri River and provid
ing a magnificent view of the river valley. Established in 1858 by the
Order of St. Benedict, the college confers degrees of Bachelor of Arts
and Bachelor of Science and has an enrollment (1938) of 250 students.
The present buildings, the first of which were completed in 1885, are de
signed in the Romanesque and Tudor Gothic styles.
The TUDOR GOTHIC MONASTERY (admittance only to office and parlors)
is (1938) being erected on the campus. Designed by Brielmaier & Son
of Milwaukee and modeled after the Benedictine monasteries of the
Middle Ages, the E-shaped edifice of native stone with white trim will
cost approximately a million dollars.
The ED HOWE HOME (private), 1117 N. 3rd St., where the journalist
and author died October 3, 1937, is a simple two-story brick structure
with white stone trim. "The Sage of Potato Hill" was the author of nu
merous magazine articles and several books, the best known of which is
the Story of a Country Town.
SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MEMORIAL HALL (open for special
events), 819 Commercial St., is a two-story brick and limestone build
ing of classic design. It was erected in 1922 as a memorial to the Atchison
County men who lost their lives in the World War. The AMERICAN LE
GION MUSEUM (open on application to caretaker) is on the second floor.
In addition to a number of Indian relics, the museum includes a captured
German flag, brought from a fort near Coblenz, Germany, by Maj. Gen.
Harry A. Smith, former resident of Atchison.
The ATCHISON AGROL PLANT (open 8-5 weekdays), SW. corner
S. 1 3th and Main Sts., manufactures a blend of alcohol and gasoline for
use as motor fuel. Established in 1935 as a research unit of the Chemical
Foundation of America, the plant began operating on a commercial basis
December 2, 1937, and has a capacity of 10,000 gallons daily.
The OLD McINTEER HOUSE, NW. corner N. i 3 th St. and Kan
sas Ave., built in 1881, and designed in the manner of an Irish castle,
with a profusion of gables and towers, has been converted into an apart
ment building.
The GLOBE PUBLISHING PLANT (open 8-5 weekdays), 123 S.
*>th St., a two-story building of red brick with a stone foundation, is
the home of the Atchison Daily Globe, founded by Ed Howe in 1877.
Walt Mason began writing his rhymes in prose form while working as a
IJ2 CITIES AND TOWNS
reporter for Howe, who objected to the publication of "poetry" in his
newspaper.
MOUNT ST. SCHOLASTICA, 801 S. 8th St., a Catholic high school
and college for young women, has a 42-acre campus. Founded as a grade
school in 1863 by the Benedictine Sisters, the college draws students from
remote sections of the United States and from France and Canada.
The large administration building of brick and stone, designed in the
Tudor Gothic style by Brielmaier & Son of Milwaukee, was completed in
1924. A new chapel of Roman design, with a facade of stone, and the re
mainder in mingled shades of buff brick, was designed by the same archi
tects. A lacework of stone at the main entrance is surmounted by a large
rose window of carved stone and colored glass.
The school has a total enrollment of 275 and the college awards the
degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science.
MAUR HILL, 1400 S. loth St., is a Catholic preparatory school for
boys. Established in 1920 by the Fathers of St. Benedict s College, Maur
Hill is a successor of Midland College, an English Lutheran institution.
Five modern buildings, four of which are Tudor Gothic in design, are
on the spacious campus. A bronze statue near the campus entrance de
picts St. Maur and St. Placid, teachers of youth, seated at the feet of St.
Benedict, patron saint of the Benedictine Order.
JACKSON PARK, entrance 1600 S. 6th St., is a rugged i4O-acre tract
with circuitous one-way drives that skirt precipitous bluffs. From the
highest point in the park, Guerrier Hill, there is a good view of the Mis
souri Valley. Park facilities include a bandstand, small lakes, swings, and
other amusements for children, and a small 200. A World War cannon
and a large stone monument were placed in the park in memory of the
Atchison men who served in the World War. The drives are lined with
beds of iris of different varieties and colors, which bloom in May.
The KANSAS STATE ORPHANS HOME (open on application),
0.5 m. NE. of city limits on Waggener Rd., consists of nine buildings of
modern brick construction on an attractive 24O-acre tract of land. The
home, which provides broad educational, domestic, and recreational facili
ties, was established in 1885 as a refuge for orphaned children of soldiers.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Independence Creek, .5.9 m.; Hickory Point, 27 m. (see Tour 12); Atchison
County Lake, 22.4 m. (see Tour 12 A).
Coffeyville
Railroad Stations: i3th St. between Willow and Spruce Sts. for Missouri Pacific
R.R.; E. 7th St. for Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R.; E. 8th St. for Atchison, Topcka
& Santa Fe Ry. ; 8th and Walnut Sts. for Union Electric Ry.
Bus Stations: Bus Terminal, 8th and Walnut Sts., for Southern Kansas Greyhound,
Santa Fe Trailways, and Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma Bus Lines.
Taxis: 150 per person in city; service in rural districts at moderate rate.
Accommodations: Two hotels; municipal camp grounds in Forest Park, at east edge
of city limits; three privately-owned tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 721 Walnut St.
Radio Station: KGGF (1010 kc.).
Motion Picture Houses: Three.
Su imming: Pfister Park Pool, NW. edge of town on Buckeye St., adm. io0; Nata-
torium, 2826 Walnut St.; Municipal Pool for Negroes, 3rd and Ash Sts.
Golf : Edgewood Golf Course, W. edge of city on US 166, 18 holes, greens fee 250,
weekdays, 350 Sunday.
Annual Events: Montgomery County Fair, Sept.; Industrial Festival, Oct.
COFFEYVILLE (744 alt., 16,198 pop.), lies immediately north of the
Kansas-Oklahoma line in a sandy basin bounded on the west and south by
a low range of hills, and on the east and north by the Verdigris River.
The city is quartered by Eighth Street, running east and west, and Wal
nut Street, running north and south. The business section is at the center,
and residences occupy all but the north quarter, the industrial area.
James A. Coffey hauled two loads of lumber from Humboldt, about
sixty miles north, and built a house and trading post near the present in
tersection of Fifteenth and Walnut Streets in July 1869. The construction
of the Lawrence, Leavenworth & Galveston Railroad through the region
in the following year resulted in the growth of a settlement around Cof-
fey s establishment. The village, named Coffeyville, was south of what is
now Twelfth Street and west of Walnut Street, near the northern border
of the Cherokee Strip (see HISTORY). Great cattle lands extended south
west. The Cookson Hills to the east and south were a rendezvous for des
peradoes in their grim game of cat-and-mouse with frontier sheriffs.
Coffeyville throve on cattle and railroad trade. Cattlemen and cowboys,
who flocked to the settlement by scores, called it Cow Town. The popu
lation numbered several hundred at the end of the first year. Cafes, sa
loons, dance-halls, and gambling houses multiplied. Cowboy "law" with
its round of riots, brawls, and shootings, prevailed. Twelfth Street, the
main thoroughfare of Cow Town, was known as "Red Hot Street." Old-
timers allow that it was well-named.
Octave Chanute, civil engineer for the railroad, acquired a tract north
of Cow Town in 1871 and platted "a railroad addition to the town of
173
174 CITIES AND TOWNS
Coffeyville." A subsequent act of the legislature, sponsored by the railroad
company, provided for its incorporation as a separate town. When the
first election was called in March 1872, citizens of the older Coffeyville
realized that their town was in danger of losing its name. Highly indig
nant, they filed suit in the district court challenging the legislature s act.
They won the case and the act was declared unconstitutional.
Parkersburg at the southeast, meanwhile, taking advantage of the quar
reling Coffeyvilles, became an increasingly formidable rival for border
trade. To protect their interests the two Coffeyvilles joined forces and
were incorporated as one town in 1873.
The Dalton family settled near Coffeyville in 1882. Adaline Lee Younger,
mother of the tribe, was said to be a relative of the notorious Younger
boys who terrorized the Missouri Valley States in post-Civil War days.
The bloody Dalton raid, favorite theme of Coffeyvi lie s crackerbox histo
rians and story-tellers, occurred on October 5, 1892. In a running gun-
fight, following attempted bank robberies, four bandits and four citizens
were slain. "The city," said the Coffeyville Journal, "sat down in sack
cloth and ashes to mourn for the heroic men who had given their lives for
the protection of property . . . and the maintenance of law in our midst."
Coffeyville boomed in 1903 with the development of natural gas and
oil fields in Kansas and nearby Oklahoma, so that by 1910, with a popu
lation of about twenty thousand, it ranked sixth in size among the cities
in the State. Its transition from an average market town to an important
industrial city, its present status in southeast Kansas, was completed by
1915.
Local factories produce flour, bricks, pigments, tank cars, chemical prod
ucts, stockfeeds, roofing tile, structural steel, and machinery used in the
oil industry. About a thousand inhabitants are employed in refining petro
leum and manufacturing gasoline and lubricants. Since 1930 Coffeyville
has been a center of organized labor activities in Kansas. Labor leaders
participate in all civic enterprises and Labor Day is celebrated annually
by the entire population.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM (open), 1008 Maple St., is a three-
story structure of brick and limestone, built in 1925 in memory of Coffey
ville citizens who served in the World War. Six Doric columns above
the east entrance are flanked by life-sized figures of stone, symboliz
ing war and peace. The south facade is similarly columned. The audito
rium seats 2,800 and is the scene of the annual Industrial Festival.
The PLAZA, 9th and Walnut Sts., contains a group of buildings at
its center, several of which figured in the Dalton raid. The building at
the south end of the Plaza block, now occupied by a real estate office, for
merly housed the Condon Bank. Its facade is scarred by bullets fired at the
Dalton gang.
Shortly after 9:30 a.m., on October 5, 1892, Jack Moore, William
Powers, and Bob, Grat, and Emmett Dalton galloped into Coffeyville,
COFFEYVILLE 175
hitched their horses in an alley between 8th and 9th Streets, just west of
Walnut Street, and strode boldly to the Plaza. Grat, Moore, and Powers
entered the Condon Bank. Bob and Emmett swaggered across the street
into the First National Bank.
C. M. Ball, cashier of the Condon Bank, when ordered to surrender the
funds, stalled for time by telling the bandits that the safe was operated by
a time lock that would not open until 9:45 a.m. "That is only three min
utes yet, and I will wait," said the outlaw s spokesman. Bob and Emmett,
meanwhile, forced the employees of the First National Bank to open the
vaults, and stuffed a grain bag with $21,000 in gold and currency.
The bandits had been recognized and the alarm had been given. Two
hardware stores, Bowell s and Isham s, threw open their supplies of guns
and ammunition to the citizenry, who stationed themselves behind wagons
and sent a volley of shots through the windows of the Condon Bank.
When the firing broke out, rheumatic old men who had hobbled with
difficulty a moment before, dived into convenient barrels with acrobatic
agility. Pedestrians crawled headfirst under culverts and remained there
trembling, unmindful of protruding hindquarters. Men of wide girth
squeezed behind thin hitching posts or scrambled under porches. Scarcely
a box, fence, or doorway on the Plaza was unoccupied.
The bandits who had been tricked into waiting for the time lock to
open (the safe had been opened at 8:00 a.m.), burst from the Condon
Bank and raced through a withering crossfire toward the alley where their
horses were tied. "They were running with heads down," said a witness
of the gunfight, "like facing a strong wind."
Bob and Emmett ran from the rear door of the National Bank. Emmett
carried the grain bag over his shoulder while Bob, Winchester in hand,
covered his retreat. Firing with deadly precision he wounded Thomas G.
Ayers, and killed George Cubine, Lucius M. Baldwin, and Charles J.
Brown.
Bob and Emmett reached the entry to "Death Alley" where they joined
Grat, Moore, and Powers. Converging townsmen fired steadily at the ban
dits. Bob emptied his gun and then slumped, mortally wounded, at the
base of a barn. Summoning his last ounce of strength, Grat shot and
killed Marshal Charles T. Connelly. Powers fell headlong, his body rid
dled. Moore struggled onto his horse and died in the saddle a half mile
away. Emmett, shot through the hips, his right arm shattered, but still
clutching the bag of money, mounted his horse and returned to where
Bob lay dying. As he extended his arm to pull Bob up beside him, he was
knocked from the saddle by a slug in the back.
Thus ended the Dalton raid. Less than fifteen minutes had elapsed
since the bandits entered Coffeyville. The 1 6-year-old Emmett was the
only survivor. He had been hit twenty-three times. Sentenced to life im
prisonment, he was subsequently pardoned after serving fourteen and a
half years. He later established himself in California as a contractor and
real estate dealer. He died at Los Angeles, aged 66, on July 13, 1937.
FOREST PARK, 8th St. at the east limits of the town, a 4O-acre
tract, is the site of the Montgomery County Fair held annually in Septem-
176 CITIES AND TOWNS
her. In addition to the fair-ground buildings, there are picnic grounds,
children s playgrounds, fields for football and baseball, and camp grounds
at the north end which are equipped with running water, gas stoves, and
screened shelter houses.
The NATATORIUM, 2826 Walnut St., is a health resort built by
W. P. Brown in 1909. It contains a dance floor, a gymnasium, mineral
springs, medicinal baths, and an outdoor swimming pool of mineral water.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Walter Johnson s Former Home, OJ m. (see Tour 7).
<<<(<<<<<<<<<<<<<< -ft >)>))>)>)))>>>>>>>
;e City
Railroad Stations: Front and Central Sts. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.; 3rd
and Trail Sts. for Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry.
Bus Stations: 613 2nd St. for Southwestern Greyhound Lines, Santa Fe Trailways,
Red Ball Bus Lines, Intrastate Bickel Bus Line, and Dodge City to Jetmore Line.
Airport: 3 m. E. on Military Ave. No scheduled service.
Taxis: io0 and upward, according to number of passengers and distance.
Accommodations: Six hotels; tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, Central and Military Aves.
Radio Station: KGNO (1340 kc.).
Motion Picture Houses: Three.
Swimming: Community Pool, Wright Park, 2nd and Water Sts.
Golf: Country Club, N. end of Avenue C, 9 holes, greens fee 250 weekdays, }O0
Sun.; Westlinks Golf Club, 1.5 m. N. from W. Chestnut St. on i4th Ave., then
0.5 m. on Chilton Road, 18 holes, greens fee 250 weekdays, 350 Sun.
Dog and Horse Racing: Wright Park, 2nd and Water Sts.
Annual Events: Southwest Tractor Show, April; Red Cross First Aid and Water
Safety School, May or June; Great Southwest Free Fair, Sept.; Pioneer Picnic,
Sept.; Community Christmas program.
DODGE CITY (2,485 alt., 10,059 PP-)> on the Arkansas River, is the
seat of Ford County and the metropolis of southwest Kansas. The city,
with its modern business and public buildings and attractive homes, breaks
the monotony of the Kansas short grass country. The newer development
of the business section has steadily advanced northward, the heart of the
present commercial district lying two blocks north of old Front Street, the
early-day business thoroughfare, paralleling the Santa Fe Tracks. The
looth Meridian W. passes through Dodge City and marks the division
between central and mountain time.
From the old Front Street area in the lowlands around the Arkansas
River the residential district also spreads northward over a series of low
hills. As in many western cities, there is a scarcity of large trees, but there
is a growing interest in tree planting, and the streets of the newer addi
tions are bordered with young trees, elms predominating.
Situated in one of the greatest wheat-producing areas in the world,
Dodge City has been called "the buckle on the Kansas wheat belt." As
the point of supply for an agricultural and cattle-raising area, it is natu
rally the trading and cultural center. Industrial development was followed
by a gradual production expansion, with enlarged distribution facilities for
agricultural machinery and implements. During the late 1920*5 and the
early 1930*5, Dodge City experienced a period of vigorous economic devel
opment. Wheat crops in 1929 and 1930 created bank clearings in 1930
177
178 CITIES AND TOWNS
of $105,347,955 evidence of the financial security that enabled the city
to weather several years of depression without serious consequences.
In 1835 the Army established a small post at the mouth of Mulberry
Creek. As late as 1864, however, the only indications of colonization in
the Southwest were the settlers emigrant trains, and the freighters outfits
taking supplies from Fort Hays to the Indian Territory. Indian attacks, led
by such noted chiefs as Satanta, Dull Knife, and Wild Hog, were a con
stant threat to travelers. Raids were especially frequent at the junction of
the Santa Fe Trail and the Arkansas River Trail, a favorite campground
for the wagon trains and the Government freighters on the Fort Hays-
Camp Supply route. To protect this site, the Government, in 1864, estab
lished Fort Dodge, naming it for Col. Henry I. Dodge, and placing in
charge his nephew, Grenville M. Dodge. It was one of the most impor
tant of the frontier forts and several Army Officers of note among them
Miles, Custer, Hancock, and Sheridan held posts there. The looth merid
ian W. was the approximate west boundary of the reservation.
In 1871 a sod house, the first building on the townsite of Dodge City,
was erected five miles west of Fort Dodge by H. L. Sitler. The spot was
near a lone cottonwood tree standing near the entrance of Wright Park
-that marked a long-used ford across the Arkansas River. Sitler, a Gov
ernment teamster, with a contract to supply wood for Fort Dodge, invested
his earnings in cattle. The "soddy" was built as a cow camp and as a
stopping place for freighters and buffalo hunters. It was outside the bound
aries of military regulations. For obvious reasons the first Dodge City
business houses tent saloons were located near Sitler s place.
During the same year, Charles Myer, a veteran buffalo hunter, estab
lished a trading post on the Dodge City site, and did business with the
hunters of a wide area to the north and south of his station.
In 1872 railroad construction gangs established headquarters near the
Sitler camp and soon the clutter of tents and portable shacks became
known as Buffalo City. A townsite was laid out later in the year, under
the name of Dodge City, by A. A. Robinson, chief engineer of the Santa
Fe Railway. In September the first passenger train pulled into the drab
little town, bringing the advance influx of immigrants, buffalo hunters,
card sharps, gamblers, and adventurers the heterogeneous, transient
population that gave early Dodge City its questionable but picturesque
reputation.
Revenue was unbelievably large from the great herds of buffalo on the
plains. For many years these great lumbering animals had been killed for
sport and food; but with the coming of the railroad, their commercial
value became evident. Before a depot could be built, the buffalo hides
were hauled in by the thousands and piled up on the ground to await ship
ment. When this industry was at its height, R. M. Wright, Dodge City
historian, estimated that 25 million of these animals were in the Dodge
City hunting territory ; and added that many persons as well informed as
himself put the probable number at 100 million. Hunters could travel for
days without losing sight of the vast herds. Tom Nixon, buffalo hunter,
once killed 120 in 40 minutes. A good shot, quick-witted and agile, could
CITY HALL, DODGE CITY
earn Sioo a day. The era of the buffalo hunter was comparatively brief.
Before the end of 1875 the great herds of shaggy animals were practically
exterminated. But the railroad was responsible for a greater industry
pushing its determined way into Dodge City the cattle industry.
Milling, bawling, Texas longhorns, driven by hundreds of cowboys and
trail bosses, came over the Texas Trail, a shortcut drifting west from the
Chisholm Trail to Dodge City, where the herds were shipped east on the
Santa Fe Railway, or driven north to the Ellis and Wakeeney railheads on
the Union Pacific Railroad. In addition, herds of young steers were rested
and watered at Dodge on their way to the great grazing areas in the North
west. These drives were enormous undertakings. Herds of 17,000 to
40,000 were brought in at one time, driven by cowpunchers scarcely less
wild than their bucking, bellowing charges.
So, in 1882, Dodge City took its turn as the cowboy capital of the
Southwest and rode high on the wave of prosperity. Outfits of cattlemen
jostled freighters, hunters and soldiers in the streets that echoed to the
ribald songs and yells of the cowboy, and the wild oaths of the bull-
whacker and the muleskinner. The law was 100 miles away at Hays a
town not without high color of its own.
The motley elements that made up the community were far too diverse
for harmony. The freighter and the trader had nothing in common, except
180 CITIES AND TOWNS
a mutual and intense dislike. The same condition existed between the cow
boys and the buffalo hunters. And the soldiers, considering themselves
duly authorized fighters, were not averse to taking a hand a high hand
whenever and wherever a row started. Results necessitated the establish
ment of Boot Hill Cemetery.
With the notable exception of Wild Bill Hickock, who centered his
activities at Hays and Abilene and is never definitely known to have visited
Dodge City, most of the gunmen famous in the annals of the Southwest
served terms as marshal or sheriff in the "Cowboy Capital." Jack Bridges,
the first marshal, and several of his successors held no commissions of
authority from the community but were hired by the saloon keepers and
gamblers to preserve some semblance of order among their boisterous
patrons.
Bat Masterson, who came to Dodge City as a boy of eighteen in 1872,
followed a varied career as sub-contractor for the railroad, buffalo hunter
and scout before his election as sheriff in 1877. Defeated for reelection,
he went to Tombstone, Arizona, where he helped Wyatt Earp, also a
former Dodge City peace officer, in his efforts to clean up that notorious
mining town. Bill Tilghman served as one of Masterson s deputies during
his term as sheriff while Ed Masterson, the sheriff s older brother, was
town marshal.
Sheriff Masterson wore clothes of the latest cut, a pearl gray bowler
hat, and a diamond stickpin. He often carried a cane, but in spite of his
foppish attire he was feared as one of the deadliest gunmen on the
frontier.
Other famous marshals included Mysterious Dave Mather, reputed to
be the lineal descendant of Cotton Mather; Prairie Dog Dave Morrow,
so-called because he carried on a profitable business of trapping prairie
dogs and selling the little animals to tourists at $5 a pair; and Luke Short.
Life at Dodge City was not all violent and tragic. Though the racing
cowpony and the detonation of the sixshooter were common sights and
sounds of the town, there were many citizens who carried on their busi
ness quietly during the day and took no part in the uproarious night life.
These persons and their preferences were respected.
After the great herds were ruthlessly reduced to a few scattered rem
nants, hunters and homesteaders were forced to descend to the compara
tively dull business of gathering up and selling the bones of the thousands
of slaughtered buffalo. They were piled in huge ricks along the railroad
and shipped East for fertilizer. By 1881 it was estimated that Kansas had
received more than two million dollars for bones alone. During this period
it was a popular saying that in Dodge City buffalo bones were legal
tender.
In 1884, Dodge City held a Fourth of July celebration unique in the
history of the State and Nation. A bull fight, with "distinguished mata
dors, all in Andalusian costume, . . . and 12 bulls," was given for the first
and, records say, the only time in the United States. The affair was much
talked of and generously advertised, creating wide-spread interest of sev
eral sorts. Humane societies protested vigorously. State and Federal author-
MEMORIAL IN BOOT HILL CEMETERY, DODGE CITY
ities wired orders to stop the show; it could not be given in the United
States. Mayor A. B. Webster wired tersely in reply, "Dodge City is not
in the United States" and went on about his business of completing the
elaborate arrangements.
On the morning of July 4th a great crowd was on the streets to see the
grand parade. The procession, headed by the mayor, included the Dodge
City Cowboy Band and the gaudily dressed matadors. At the fair-grounds
more than 2,000 people found seats in the huge amphitheater especially
built for the occasion.
The fight was repeated on the next day with an even better selection
of fighting bulls, more thrills and excitement. The Ford County Globe of
July 8, made this boastful comment:
Those present can testify that it was a genuine bull fight on each of the two days,
just as we said it would be, and parties who witnessed the performances are free to
say that they never beheld one, either in Old Mexico or Spain, that was more in
dead earnest than the ones given in this city.
Gradually, as other shipping terminals were established, Dodge City
became less important as a center of the cattle industry, and in 1884 the
State legislature, alarmed at the increase of the cattle disease known as
Texas fever, passed legislation forbidding the importation of Texas cattle
between March i and December i, the season of the long drives. This
ended the era of the cattle trail.
182 CITIES AND TOWNS
The city retained a moderate importance as a shipping point for the
large herds pastured in Southwest Kansas until the blizzard of 1886
destroyed the herds and the Kansas cattlemen gave up the battle with the
homesteaders, which had been raging since the tide of settlement began to
sweep over this section of the State in 1885. Many ranchers drove the
remnants of their herds into the unorganized territory south of the State
line. Others fenced a few thousand acres of grazing land and continued
on a smaller scale, but by 1890 large areas near Dodge City had been
broken up and sown to wheat and other crops.
From the days of the gambler and the card sharp, down through those
of the cowpony race, the bull fight, and the greyhound- jackrabbit cours
ing, there had been a keen relish for sporting events. Today it finds outlet
in dog racing and in the raising and racing of saddle and harness horses,
and thoroughbred coursing hounds. The Wild Indian Kennels, just west
of Wright Park, are the largest in the Middle West. A familiar sight in
the environs of Dodge City is a beautiful thoroughbred jumper, followed
on his morning canter by a dozen or more graceful racing dogs.
The city has a modern school system including a junior college, a
denominational academy, and a business college. There are two well-
equipped modern hospitals and more than a dozen churches, several of
which are of architectural interest.
POINTS OF INTEREST
BOOT HILL, 4th Ave. and Spruce St., a promontory of "gyp-rock"
(gypsum), and clay rising 100 feet above the Arkansas River Valley, was
an early-day lookout.
About 1872 two cowboys, camped on this hillsite, had a gunfight. One
was killed and the murderer fled. The dead man, friendless and unknown,
was wrapped in his blankets and buried where he fell with his boots on.
So was Boot Hill dedicated.
Deaths in Dodge City during the first five years were frequent and
usually sudden. Often the victims were known only by a first name or an
alias. Public concern with the last rites was brief. Some had rude pine
coffins; others, wrapped in their blankets were buried as they fell with
boots on, or under their heads for a pillow.
Merritt Beeson, local historian, and son of Chalk Beeson, widely known
Dodge City pioneer, says the burial of Alice Chambers, dance hall girl, on
May 5, 1878, was the last on Boot Hill.
In 1879, when a schoolhouse was built on the site, the bodies were
moved to Prairie Grove Cemetery; and with one exception were buried
side by side, in four rows. Alice Chambers lies a short distance away,
alone.
In 1927 the city bought Boot Hill as a site for the CITY HALL, built
in 1929 and 1930. It is a two-story structure built of yellow brick and
concrete, with a tile roof, and houses the offices of city officials, and the
fire and police departments. A. R. Mann of Hutchinson was the architect.
Near the main entrance is the COWBOY STATUE, a well-proportioned
DODGE CITY 183
figure modeled in concrete, representing the western cowboy in the act of
drawing his gun. To the left of the entrance is the LONGHORN STATUE-
the heads and yoke of an ox team molded in concrete on a concrete base.
These monuments recalling the Dodge City of the iSyo s and i88o s, were
modeled by the late Dr. O. H. Simpson, a local dentist.
Near the hall is a clever but rather macabre hoax, also modeled by
Dr. Simpson, and "planted" as a bit of atmosphere for a Rotarian conven
tion held in Dodge City in 1930. This is an imitation graveyard with
markers at several "graves" bearing the fictitious titles of early-day tough
characters "Shoot-em-up Ike," "One-Eyed Jake," "Toothless Nell." Par
tially exposed and weathered concrete skulls and boot toes give the
expected thrill.
The local Rotarians, infected by the spirit of Dr. Simpson s hoax,
"planted" an old cottonwood tree on the hillside and passed it off to
visitors as the historic gallows tree from Horse Thief Canyon. It still
stands a rope, dangling suggestively from a high crotch, draped around
the dead trunk.
A veteran Dodge City peace officer, attired in cowboy regalia, is sta
tioned in a small tent south of Boot Hill graveyard site. Tourists who
visit the Hill are entertained with anecdotes of early day Dodge City and
are requested to sign their names in the Boot Hill guest book.
WRIGHT PARK, 2nd Ave. and Water St., N. of the Arkansas River,
was named in honor of Robert M. Wright, a pioneer citizen and former
mayor. In it are the MEMORIAL FOUNTAINS, honoring World War vet
erans; the HOOVER PAVILION, a cream-colored stucco building used for
entertainments and public meetings named in honor of G. M. Hoover,
Dodge City banker who left a bequest of $95,000 for civic improvement;
and the Great Southwest Free Fair Buildings. Multi-colored rock white
and black, and varied shades of orange, red, and amber from the Sawlog,
an upland stream near Dodge City, is used in various park constructions.
The OLD LONE TREE, 2nd Ave. and Water St., a cottonwood,
near the entrance of Wright Park, marks the site of the ford on the
Arkansas River when the town was founded in 1872. The tree is dead, but
the trunk has been preserved. A memorial plate shows a prairie schooner
and emigrants in bas-relief.
The SITE OF THE FIRST BUILDING, 305 2nd Ave., is marked with
a bronze tablet set in the wall of the present building. It is the approx
imate place where H. L. Sitler built his sod house in 1871.
The SITE OF THE FIRST SCHOOL, NW. corner ist Ave. and Wal
nut St., was marked in 1927 by a bronze tablet set in a five-foot sandstone
boulder, bearing the inscription, "Here public education had its begin
ning in the Southwest in 1873."
The SANTA FE MARKER, NW. corner 2nd Ave. and Trail St., is a
red granite boulder about three feet high, erected in 1906 by the D. A. R.
and the State of Kansas. The inscribed bronze tablet bears the dates when
the old Santa Fe Trail was in use, 1822-1872.
The SITE OF OLD FORT DODGE MILITARY RESERVATION,
Central and Military Aves., is marked by a tablet set in the pavement in
184 CITIES AND TOWNS
front of the main entrance to the Lora Locke Hotel. Part of the city is
built on the old reservation and the hotel is on the western boundary line.
Two SUNDIALS, Front St. and Central Ave., stand side by side, in
the Santa Fe station park. They are 44 feet in diameter and separated by a
space of 44 feet. Visible from the windows of passing trains, the east
dial tells central standard time, the west dial, mountain time. The looth
meridian W. passes between them.
The FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NW. corner Central Ave.
and Vine St., is of the English Gothic style of architecture, designed
by Harry W. Jones of Minneapolis, Minn. It was completed in 1925 at a
cost of $150,000. The structure is of Kansas limestone trimmed with
Carthage, Mo., limestone. In the church auditorium is a pipe organ, built
in Lawrence and installed at a cost of $12,800.
THE SACRED HEART ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, NW.
corner Central Ave. and Cedar St., designed in the Spanish Mission style,
is constructed of limestone with red-tile, gable roof and domed belfry.
Above the arched entrance is a life-size figure of Christ. The interior of
the church is finished in tan stucco and the high ceiling of the nave is
supported by rough-hewn beams, stained a dark brown color. Above the
altar is an oil painting, The Crucifixion," by George M. Stone. Designed
by Cram and Ferguson of Boston, the Church was completed in 1915 on
the site of the first Catholic Church in Dodge City built in 1879. Adjoin
ing the church on the north are a parish house and a parochial grade
school, which harmonize with the church in design and construction.
The CITY LIBRARY (open 11-9 weekdays, 2-6 Sun.), NW. cor
ner 2nd and Spruce Sts., an Andrew Carnegie beneficiary, is a one and
one-half story brick building of modified Romanesque design, constructed
in 1910. Fred Lipps of Dodge City was the architect. The library contains
14,000 volumes.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Beeson Museum, 1.4 m., Old Fort Dodge and the State Soldiers Home, .5 m.;
Willroad Gardens, .5 m. (see Tour 4A).
Jbmpona
i
Railroad Stations: Neosho St. and 3rd Ave. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.;
6th Ave. and East St. for Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R.
Bus Station: Mit-way Hotel, 5th Ave. and Commercial St., for Santa Fe Trailways,
Emporia-Eureka bus Line.
Taxis: Minimum fare, 100.
Buses: Three intra-city lines, fare 80.
Traffic Regulations: Traffic lights at intersections in business district. Parking limi
tations indicated by street signs. Speed limit 25 miles per hour.
Accommodations: Seven hotels; three tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 6th Ave. and Merchant St.
Radio Station: KTSW (1310 kc.).
Motion Picture Houses: Three.
Golf : Emporia Country Club, N. end of Rural St., greens fee $i.
Tennis: Peter Pan Park, State Teachers College campus.
Boating, Fishing, and Ice Skating: Peter Pan Park.
Annual Events: St. David s Day, March i; County Music Festivals, High School,
Grade, and Rural Schools, late in March, early in April; Spring Music Festival,
College of Emporia, April; State High School Music Festival, Teachers College,
April; Statewide Scholarship Contest, Teachers College, May; Santa Fe Brother
hood Picnic, July; Community Play, Mid-Summer Night s Dream, Peter Pan Park,
July and August.
EMPORIA (1,133 a ^- I 4 ^7 PP-)> sea t f Lyon County, division point
of the Santa Fe Railway and trading center of a farming and dairying region,
lies on a low ridge between the Neosho and Cottonwood Rivers. Although
its streets appear to have been laid through a forest of elms and maples,
Emporia was in fact platted on a treeless plain carpeted with bluestem
grass and on the surrounding slopes and valleys broad pastures of blue-
stem still flourish near fields of corn and wheat.
The business district, centered at 6th Avenue and Commercial Street, is
composed of two- and three-story brick structures that range architecturally
from the beetling-corniced roof of the 1890*5 to the bland utilitarian
facade of the 1930*5. Four blocks past the business district Commercial
Street runs plump into the Kansas State Teachers College which, with the
College of Emporia, enables local civic leaders to call their town the
"Educational Center of the West."
The residential area consists largely of frame houses interspersed with
brick bungalows and an occasional Victorian structure. Trees are plenti
ful; lawns are frequently marked with profuse shrubbery. Berkeley Hills,
a restricted neighborhood at the northwest of the city, contains trim mod
ern houses of English and Dutch Colonial architecture. The streets in this
section deviate from the usual gridiron pattern and follow curved courses.
The inhabitants are mainly of Welsh and English extraction. St. David s
185
186 CITIES AND TOWNS
Day, honoring the Welsh patron saint, is annually observed by a program
at the Bethany Congregational Church and the serving of tea with "bara
brith," a Welsh shortbread.
Emporia manufactures cheese, candy, mattresses, stock feeds, patent
medicines, and flavoring extracts. There are three grain elevators with a
combined storage capacity of 75,000 bushels. The Santa Fe Railway main
tains stockyards and feeding pens for livestock temporarily quartered here
enroute to eastern markets, that can accommodate 12,000 cattle and 60,000
sheep.
Emporia was established in 1857 by the Emporia Town Company, four
of whose five members were residents of Lawrence, Kansas. The townsite
was bought from the estate of an Indian, A. Hicks, for $1,800. George
W. Brown, president of the town company and editor of the Lawrence
Herald of Freedom, named the proposed town for an ancient city in
northern Africa which, according to Rollin s History of the Carthaginians,
was a place of great wealth and importance.
Set down on the prairie where bluestem grass grew shoulder-high, the
settlement consisted of an inn, a store, and a shanty in which Preston B.
Plumb, only member of the town company to reside in Emporia, pub
lished the Kanzas News. The first issue of this sheet, dated June 5, 1857,
contained the town charter, a section of which prohibited the use and sale
of "spirituous liquor" within the townsite. Thus Emporia was the first
"dry town" in the Middle West.
A stageline was established between Emporia and Lawrence in the lat
ter part of 1857. Aided by publicity in the Kanzas News and the Herald
of Freedom, the settlement made comparatively rapid strides. The popula
tion of the township numbered 541 by the summer of 1859. Throughout
that year and into the next a severe drought withered the countryside and
impoverished its settlers. No rain fell for sixteen months. The water
supply at Emporia gave out, necessitating laborious journeys to the Cotton-
wood River.
Heavy rains fell in 1860 and Emporia resumed its progress. At a Fourth
of July picnic given in the village that year, Preston B. Plumb mounted a
rough platform beneath a brush arbor and delivered a bitter denunciation
of slavery. In 1862, practicing what had been implied in his previous
preaching, Plumb organized a company of 144 men and served in the
remaining years of the Civil War as captain, major, and, finally, lieutenant-
colonel of the nth Kansas Cavalry. On returning to civilian life he was
elected to the Kansas legislature. In 1877 he was elected United States
Senator from Kansas, an office he held until his death in 1891.
In post-Civil War years the Emporia region attracted cattlemen who,
buying gaunt Texas steers for as little as a dollar each, "put taller" on
the animals by turning them out to graze the long bluestem grass. About
$80,000 worth of cattle were sold in Lyon County during 1866. The
"fattening" industry was subsequently blighted by settlers who fenced off
the land. The cattlemen objected to the "spoilage" of the range, but their
protests were brushed aside by the incoming army of homesteaders.
EMPORIA 187
In 1867 the citizens of Lyon County voted $200,000 to insure the con
struction of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad into Emporia. The first
train on this route arrived December 22, 1869. A similar sum was appro
priated by the county government in 1869 to aid the extension of the
Santa Fe Railway. The first Santa Fe train entered Emporia on September
14, 1870. In that year Emporia was incorporated as a city of the second
class.
Equipped with railroad transportation and situated amid a fertile farm
ing region, Emporia thereafter prospered as a trading center. Gas for
illumination was installed in 1880; streetcars drawn by mules were put in
operation the following year; and in 1885 an electric light plant was
established. The Santa Fe Railway built a stockyard in 1887, which was
enlarged between 1905-1909 at a cost of $90,000. A railroad yard con
struction and improvement project undertaken by the Santa Fe in 1923
was completed in 1926 at an estimated cost of five million dollars.
Lack of an adequate reserve of water was for many years the Achilles
heel of Emporia. In the drought of 1859 John Hammond, town carpenter,
had sunk a well on Mechanic Street and found water at 180 feet, but this
supply was not sufficient to satisfy the needs of a growing community. In
1880 a water plant was built by the Cottonwood River, but the quality of
the water obtained from this stream proved inferior and, six years later,
the plant was moved to the Neosho River.
The level of Neosho River, however, frequently dropped to an ex
tremely low point under the summer sun and Emporia was periodically
threatened with a water shortage. In such an emergency during July 1913,
Emporians were forbidden to water their lawns and advised to boil all
water used for drinking. Dan Dryer, commissioner of public utilities, was
mildly ridiculed by the Nation s press in August 1920 because of his quite
reasonable demand that the amount of water in Emporia bathtubs not
exceed four inches.
In 1926 Emporia, aided by the Federal Government, solved its water
problem for all time. The Kahola Valley, 25 miles northwest of the city,
was dammed. The 400 acres of water thus impounded assure Emporia of
an inexhaustible supply. The project was completed in 1938.
Emporia is the birthplace of William Allen White, eminent journalist
and publisher of the Emporia Gazette.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The EMPORIA PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 9-9 weekdays; 2-6 Sun.),
6th Ave. and Market St., is a one-story brick structure designed by Felt
& Co. of Kansas City, Mo., and built in 1905-1906. It contains 30,000
volumes, complete files of all Emporia newspapers, including the Kanzas
Neivs (1857-59), and a valuable collection of old clippings, magazines,
and secretarial books.
PETER PAN PARK, Randolph and Rural Sts., a 5O-acre landscaped
tract, has at its northwest corner a lake from which radiate winding paths
188 CITIES AND TOWNS
that open on picnic grounds and a wading pool. A natural amphitheater,
equipped with a stage and a loudspeaking system, is used for Sunday
evening vespers, amateur theatricals, and various public meetings.
Peter Pan Park was donated to Emporia by Mr. and Mrs. William Allen
White in memory of their daughter, Mary, who was fatally injured while
horseback riding in 1921. Destined to be Mary White s permanent memo
rial is the tender editorial that her father wrote upon her death. This
prose threnody has been reprinted in a score of anthologies. "Probably if
her father has any sort of lasting fame beyond the decade following his
death," William Allen White has said, "it will come from this editorial."
SODEN S MILL (open on application at office), 1017 S. Commer
cial St., a three-story corbel-stepped structure of cement and rough stone,
was built in 1860 by W. T. Soden. For many years before it ceased operat
ing in 1924 this mill supplied most of the flour used in Lyon County.
After almost a decade of idleness the building was restored by L. S.
Anderson and F. J. Alderson and re-opened as a mill. The walls of the
first floor, near the water line, are six feet thick, reinforced by steel bars.
Rafters and beams are of black walnut, pinned and braced with pegs. The
second floor is similarly constructed of lighter timber. The upper walls
are eighteen inches thick. Much of the old machinery, including the roll
ers, is in use. A new water wheel, propelled by about half the water
formerly used, supplies about twice as much power as did the old wheel.
The SODEN HOUSE (private), the west side of Commercial St.
near the Soden Mill, is a two-story Victorian mansion, built in the 1 870*5
for W. T. Soden. The brick walls are broken by bay-windows and an
irregular out-thrust cornice, which forms a series of hat-like profiles around
the structure. The mansard roof, effusively ornamented with wrought iron
railings, is capped by a lookout tower.
The WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE RESIDENCE "RED ROCKS"
(private), 927 Exchange St., a large two-story house of Colorado sand
stone, with Victorian-Gothic gables and dormer windows, was built in the
i88o s for Judge Almerin Gillette. Since 1900 "Red Rocks" has been the
home of William Allen White (see LITERATURE, NEWSPAPERS, and
HISTORY).
White was born in Emporia on February 10, 1868. A part of his youth
was spent in El Dorado where he attended high school. Following his
graduation he studied at the College of Emporia for two years, working
during vacations for the El Dorado Republican and the Emporia News.
In 1886 he enrolled at the University of Kansas, working part-time for
the Lawrence Journal. He left the university before graduation to follow
a career that took him successively to the Kansas City Journal, the Topeka
State Journal, and the Kansas City Star.
In 1895 he returned to Emporia, borrowed $3,000, and bought the
Emporia Gazette, a small daily and weekly. As an editor young White
attracted no particular attention until the appearance of his "What s the
Matter with Kansas?" editorial in August 1896. His vitriolic answer to
the question thus posed was widely circulated by the Republican party in
SODEN S MILL, EMPORIA
the presidential campaign of that year. Editor White, elevated to Nation
wide prominence overnight, thereafter consolidated his position with a
score of books and numerous articles.
Despite attractive offers from metropolitan newspapers, he remained in
his home town. Dubbed the "Sage of Emporia" for his interpretations of
national affairs, his counsel was sought by the leaders of the Republican
party. Not always a deep-dyed party man, he several times bolted the
Kansas G.O.P. In 1924 he ran for Governor as an independent candidate
to protest against the growing Ku Klux Klan complexion of the Republi
can party in Kansas. Although defeated he polled votes sufficient to dis
courage the entry of the Klan into subsequent contests.
White has received honorary degrees from three colleges and four uni-
\ersities. President Wilson appointed him United States delegate to the
proposed Russian Conference at Prinkipo in 1919, and in 1931 he served
with President Hoover s Organization for Unemployment Relief. He is a
trustee of the College of Emporia, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Will
Rogers Memorial Association, and, since 1925, a member of the Institute
of Pacific Relations.
The EMPORIA GAZETTE BUILDING, 517 Merchant St., is a two-
sl:ory structure of pressed-brick. Part of the first floor and the entire
basement are used to publish the Emporia Gazette, White s widely quoted
newspaper. Among past employees of the Gazette, is Walt Mason, the
"rippling rhymer," who began working for White in 1907. His prose-
190 CITIES AND TOWNS
poems, which he began writing while working as a reporter on the
Atchison Daily Globe, gradually caught the public s fancy, outgrew the
Gazette s small audience, and, as a syndicated feature, appeared in the
largest dailies in the country. Mason lived in Emporia until 1920 when
he moved to California, his present home (1938).
The SECOND CHRISTIAN CHURCH (Negro), SE. corner 8th
Ave. and Congress St., is a small box-style structure built in 1859 for use
by the white congregation of the Christian Church. Shortly afterwards
the building was moved to Americus to serve as the courthouse while that
town was seat of Lyon County (1858-60). It was subsequently returned
to Emporia and again used by the Christian Church until the early 1890 $
when it was sold to the Negro congregation of the Second Christian
Church. Excellently preserved, the structure appears much as it did in pio
neer days.
The COLLEGE OF EMPORIA, W. end of i2th Ave., an accredited
co-educational institution with an average enrollment of 400 students, was
founded in 1882 by the Kansas Synod of the Presbyterian Church. On the
50-acre campus overlooking Emporia are the administration building,
Lewis Hall of Science, Thomas Hall (men s dormitory), Mason Gymna
sium, and Emporia and Dunlap Halls (women s dormitories). A semi
circular drive (entrance at the southeast corner of the campus) skirts the
main buildings, the most prominent of which is the ADMINISTRATION
BUILDING or KENYON HALL, a three-story brick and stone structure of
modified Gothic architecture designed by Felt & Co. of Kansas City, Mo.,
and completed in 1929 at a cost of $275,000. It contains classrooms,
administrative offices, a little theater, and society meeting rooms. In the
north wing is a WAR MEMORIAL CHAPEL, the walls of which bear plaques
commemorating several past presidents of the college and those students
who served in the World War.
Another building on the campus is the ANDERSON MEMORIAL LIBRARY
(open: 8-5 Mon.; 7-9 Tues., Wed., Thurs.; 7:30-5 FrL; 7:30-12:30
Sat.), a two-story new-classic building of Kansas limestone fronted by a
Grecian portico, was designed by Charles Squires of Emporia and dedi
cated in 1902. On the second floor is MISSIONARY HALL, which contains
a library of missionary literature and a collection of curios gathered by
alumni of the college employed in foreign missionary work.
The library is named for Col. John B. Anderson, a railroad official who
died in 1897. While a division superintendent of a railroad in Pennsyl
vania, Anderson had invited the employees to use his library. Among
those who accepted was Andrew Carnegie, then a telegraph operator.
Following Anderson s death in later years, Carnegie, grown wealthy, pro
posed to commemorate his early friend by financing the construction of a
library in Pittsburgh, Pa. Mrs. Anderson of Manhattan, Kans., preferred
that the library be established at the College of Emporia, an institution in
which her husband had been interested. Carnegie assented. Books from
Colonel Anderson s private library supplied the nucleus of the present
collection which includes more than 22,000 volumes.
EMPORIA 191
The KANSAS STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE, i2th Ave. and Com
mercial St., is a co-educational institution with an average enrollment
of 1,500 students. As the Kansas State Normal School, the college was
organized in 1865. The opening sessions, held in the upper room of a
stone schoolhouse, were attended by 18 students. The first building was
erected in 1867 through private gifts and a legislative appropriation. The
present name was adopted on February 20, 1923.
The 46-acre campus, enclosed by a low brick wall, is shaded by more
than 70 varieties of trees, including Russian olive, Chinese elm, and Irish
juniper. The main entrance at the foot of Commercial Street opens on a
sunken garden which contains a fountain and a lily pool. The garden is
bordered by peach, pecan, catalpa, and mulberry trees.
Directly north of the sunken gardens is PLUMB MEMORIAL HALL, a
four-story, T-shaped structure of brick and stone, its main entrance flanked
by two massive columns. The building was designed by Charles H.
Chandler and completed in 1917. The front wing houses the administra
tive offices of the college; the rear wing contains Albert Taylor Hall, an
auditorium which seats 2,000.
Southeast of Plumb Memorial Hall is the LABORATORY SCHOOL, a
three-story building of brick and terra cotta, designed by Charles D. Cuth-
bert and completed in 1929. The structure incorporates advanced ideas in
school planning. It contains kindergarten classrooms equipped with stages
and fireplaces, a library, a clinic, a science laboratory, and an auditorium-
gymnasium.
South of the Laboratory School is the Music HALL, a three-story build
ing of brick and terra cotta, designed by Charles D. Cuthbert and erected
in 1928. It contains 18 studios, 33 practice rooms, several rehearsal halls,
and an air-conditioned auditorium where weekly student recitals and
monthly public concerts are presented.
Near the drive that extends from Commercial Street is the KELLOGG
LIBRARY (open: 7:45-9 Mon., Tues., Wed., Tburs.; 7:45-8:30 Fr/.;
7:45-6 Sat.), named for Lyman Beecher Kellogg, first president of the
college. The structure was designed by John F. Stanton, and completed in
1903. The library contains more than 70,000 volumes. NORTON SCIENCE
HALL, a three-story building of brick and terra cotta, is named for Henry
B. Norton, first instructor of natural science at the college. The structure
was designed by John F. Stanton and built in 1907. It houses the depart
ments of physics, biology, chemistry, and health education. A MUSEUM
(open 8-5 weekdays), in the hallways on each floor, contains fossils,
minerals, industrial exhibits, and biological specimens.
Facing Lake Wooster at the north of the campus are the women s dor
mitories, Abigail Morse Hall and Morse Hall Annex. The remaining
buildings on the campus include the gymnasium, the Student Union build
ing, and the power plant.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Lyon County State Lake, 14.2 m.; Cottonwood Falls, 23 m. (see Tour 4 A).
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<}-> >>>)>>>>>)>>>)>>>
Fort Scott
Railroad Stations: 623 E. Wall St. for St. Louis & San Francisco Ry. ; 312 National
Ave. for Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R.; 219 N. National Ave. for Missouri Pacific
R.R.
Bus Stations: Goodlander Hotel, 2 S. National Ave. for Santa Fe Trailways,
Southern Greyhound Lines and Missouri-Ozark Lines.
Accommodations: Eight hotels; five tourist camps; boarding houses.
Information Service: Goodlander Hotel, 2 S. National Ave.; Chamber of Commerce
Marble Bldg.
Motion Picture Theaters: Three.
Swimming: Municipal pool, yth and Main Sts.; Bridal Veil Park pool (Negro)
W. 2nd St.
Picnic and Playgrounds: Gunn Park, W. end of 9th St.
Annual Events: Holy City, sacred cantata, last Sunday in March; Dairy Show, Sept.,
three days.
FORT SCOTT (800 alt., 10,763 pop.), the outgrowth of a frontier mili
tary outpost, lies on the south bank of the Marmaton River, five miles
west of the Missouri Line. A city of "jogging" streets and fine old trees,
with buildings older than Kansas itself sandwiched in between modern
structures, Fort Scott is a blend of pioneer and modern America. At the
junction of three railroads, the city is important as a distribution and
shipping point and also as a manufacturing center in southeastern Kansas.
The Saturday afternoon bustle of farmers and their wives in and out of
stores, produce stations, and cafes indicates the place of agriculture in the
community s economy.
The business district extends south from Market Square, a triangular
plot bounded by Market, Oak, and National Avenues. National Avenue,
which bounds Market Square on the west, bisects the town from north to
south. Immediately adjacent to the business section on the south and west
is Fort Scott s older residential district, center of the social activities of
the i88o s and 1890*8. Gabled brick and stone structures for the most
part, with broad porches and deep windows, the houses are in good repair
and in many instances are occupied by descendants of the original owners.
Great elm trees form long green arches over the streets in this section, and
stone hitching posts still stand in front of many of the houses.
Approximately one mile from the business section on the south and
west are the newer residential districts with recently paved streets, straight
young trees, and rows of trim frame and stucco houses. Three railroads
cut through the north portion of the city near the river and the industrial
section.
Fort Scott has one of the first municipally-owned junior colleges in the
192
FORT SCOTT 193
State, with an enrollment of approximately 400. Schools, churches, lodges,
and clubs are centers for the community s social and cultural life.
Owing, no doubt, to the town s early military history and to the fact
that many of the residents are descendants of the first soldiers stationed
at old Fort Scott, patriotic organizations have been especially active within
the city from its earliest days and residents make even the lesser patriotic
days gala occasions. Carroll Plaza, today as in the past, is the scene of these
celebrations.
Provisions were made for a camp between Fort Leavenworth and Fort
Gibson when the old Military Road between the two was surveyed in
1837, but it was not until 1842 that a fort was founded at a point approxi
mately midway between the two and named in honor of Gen. Winfield
Scott. Designated as the "Plaza," a parade ground was laid out and by
the summer of 1843 a number of military buildings, including officers
quarters, soldiers barracks, stables, a hospital, and a guardhouse, were
completed, all facing the parade grounds. Surrounding the square and its
buildings was a stockade, built of huge timbers 12 feet high. An iron gate
in the west side of the stockade was the only opening.
Fort Scott was garrisoned until 1855, when the Government abandoned
it, selling the lumber in the stockade and auctioning off fort buildings.
After the sale of the buildings Fort Scott carried on as a tiny settlement;
travel continued over the Military Road and the town grew in importance
through trade with soldiers, settlers, and Indians. Lying only five miles
from the Missouri Line, the town, before and during the Civil War,
became the rendezvous for both Free Staters and pro-slavery sympathizers,
and guerrillas and ruffians along the border plundered and stole from
both sides.
One of the old fort s officers quarters was occupied by the Free State
Hotel in the late 1850 $, so named because it was a favorite stopping place
for such Free Staters as John Brown, Charles Jennison, Capt. James Mont
gomery, and scores of sympathizers not so well known. The hotel became
nationally known through the columns of the New York, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore papers as the headquarters of Captain Montgomery, who
made widely publicized raids upon pro-slavery sympathizers in the
vicinity.
Local tradition in Fort Scott asserts that the term Jay hawker originated
with the patrons of the Free State Hotel. Pat Devlin, an Irishman and a
member of Captain Montgomery s band, so the story goes, returned late
one afternoon from plundering pro-slavery farmers along the Missouri-
Kansas border. Asked where he had been he replied that he had been
"jayhawking." "The jayhawk," he went on to explain, "is a bird in Ireland
that catches small birds and bullyrags the life out of them like cats do
mice. I m in the same business myself and I call it jayhawking." Jay-
hawker was taken up by Captain Montgomery as a nickname for his band
and finally stuck as a name for all Kansas.
The Western Hotel, stopping place for pro-slavery men, stood directly
across the Plaza from the Free State Hotel in the days preceding the Civil
194 CITIES AND TOWNS
War, and rivalry between the two hostelries was as bitter as that between
the North and the South. Here, it is said, the Marais des Cygnes massacre
(see HISTORY) was plotted and here two pro-slavery men organized a
Blue Lodge by which they hoped to drive Free State men from the Terri
tory by scaring them off their claims. The Free Staters, in turn, organized
the Self-Protective Association headed by Captain Montgomery.
Friction between the two factions came to a head in October 1857, when
Judge Joseph Williams of the United States District Court, a pro-slavery
sympathizer, began to hear the lawsuits between the Free State and the
pro-slavery men over homestead claims. Declaring that all decisions were
going against the Free State claimants because of partiality shown by the
court, the anti-slavery faction set up its own court in a log cabin a few
miles from town. This they called the "Squatters Court" and, as no Bible
was handy, witnesses were sworn on an old medical book, Dr. Gunn s
Family Physician.
Pro-slavery sympathizers arrested a man named Rice, who was charged
with the murder of one of their comrades, and held him at the Free State
Hotel pending his trial in the district court. Montgomery, with about 70
men, returned to Fort Scott to release the prisoner. A storekeeper named
Little, who was also United States marshal, fired into the group outside
the hotel from the transom of his shop. Immediately one of Montgom
ery s men returned fire, shooting Little through the forehead as he looked
out. Shots rang out through the Plaza for several minutes. Montgomery
and his party surrounded the store, believing it garrisoned with pro-
slavery men. Ruffians in the band looted nearby stores. The Free Staters
broke into the store and Montgomery stopped the looting. The Free State
man was released. By 1860 the border was quiet again.
After the outbreak of the Civil War Fort Scott again assumed impor
tance as a military post, large quantities of supplies being stored there for
the use of troops stationed as far south as the Red River. Lt. Col. Lewis
R. Lewell, commanding the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, was appointed Post
Commander in 1862, and fortifications, consisting of breastworks, stock
ades, and three blockhouses Fort Henning, Fort Insley, and Fort Blair
were erected. Gen. James H. Lane, who was appointed Union commander
for recruiting in the department of Kansas in July 1862, also established
his headquarters at the fort.
Fort Scott, during the i86o s and 1870*5, was noted for its gaiety. Even
during the tense days before the war the Free State Hotel was as gay a spot
as was to be found in southeastern Kansas. Here, according to early news
paper accounts, the "elite of the town" gathered and frequently "danced
and joshed each other until seven o clock in the morning."
The Wilder House, just off the Plaza on Main Street, replaced the Free
State Hotel as a rendezvous in the late i86o s. Famed in the vicinity is the
reply of the hotel-keeper when new arrivals asked, "Is this the Wilder
House?" "You stay here awhile," he would drawl, "and you ll find there
ain t a wilder house in the country."
The Tri-Weekly Stage ran between Kansas City and Fort Scott in the
i86o s, the name of which, as the town wags explained it, meant "to go
FORT SCOTT 195
out one week and try to get back the next." The fare between the two
points was $10 and "carry a rail," the term of the day for walking along
side the stagecoach when the roads were bad. "If the roads were good," an
historian writes, "a man passenger only had to carry a rail about a third
of the way. But it was worth the price to ride into the Wilder House with
a grand flourish."
Cohn s Restaurant and Confectionery on East Wall Street became the
social hub of the town in the i88o s. "The Dclmonico of the West," one
local newspaper called it, "a royal restaurant with dining parlors hand
somely painted and papered in the highest style of art, the popular and
stylish resort of the city. . . ." Cohn, restaurateur of parts, among other
elaborate dishes contributed "Quail a la Marmaton" and "Turkey a la
Pawnee" to the art of cuisine.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, social life was
greatly subdued. The town was developing as a manufacturing and trad
ing center. Then in the early 1900*5 came a slump in business activity, a
gradual let-down after a half century of bustling activity.
For years farmers in the vicinity produced grains and vegetables with
only moderate success. In 1910, however, a survey was made and Fort
Scott business men offered to promote the establishment of ice cream fac
tories and creameries if the farmers would devote their resources to the
raising of dairy cattle. Local banks extended credit to farmers who bought
dairy cows and marketed their milk in Fort Scott. Progress was slow in the
beginning for money was scarce and a limited market retarded production.
In 1918 the Borden Company erected a condensery, furnishing a year-
around market which insured the success of the dairying program.
In 1938, thirty milk trucks covered the territory, carrying approximately
150,000 pounds of milk a day into Fort Scott. Farmers receive almost
$1,000,000 yearly for the dairy products, the greater portion of which is
spent in this vicinity or deposited in local banks. Dairymen and business
men promote a Dairy Show annually. In addition to the dairy industry
Fort Scott has two railroad shops, an overall factory, a monument factory,
foundries, and paving brick plants. A hydraulic cement plant just north
of town is among the largest of its kind in the Middle West and deposits
of coal, which accompany the cement rock deposits, furnish fuel for the
plant s operation. The mining of coal is an industry of steadily increasing
importance in the area.
Fort Scott was the home of Eugene Fitch Ware, author and editor (see
LITERATURE).
POINTS OF INTEREST
CARROLL PLAZA, east of the business district and bounded by
Marmaton, Blair, Fenton, and Lincoln Aves., is a grass-grown square, once
the parade ground for soldiers stationed at the old fort. It is the oldest
area in the city, having been laid out in 1842. Although the points of the
square were undoubtedly intended to be directly north and south, a slight
miscalculation was made and its sides lie diagonal to Fort Scott s main
streets. On the square and facing it are the remaining fort relics.
196 CITIES AND TOWNS
Near the SE. entrance is FORT BLAIR (always open), a Civil War
blockhouse. Originally built on the corner of 2nd and Scott Streets, it was
moved to its site on the Plaza in 1924. The blockhouse is constructed of
sawed slabs, thoroughly spiked, covered with shingles and weather-boarded
with rough native lumber. Numerous openings in its sides were used as
loopholes for rifle fire. A bandstand near the center marks the SITE OF
THE OLD FORT POWDER MAGAZINE built in 1842. A stone canopy, near
the bandstand, marks the SITE OF THE OLD FORT WELL that was dug im
mediately after the first soldiers arrived at Fort Scott. The canopy, con
structed in the early part of the present century, is a reproduction of the
original built in the 1 840*5.
The SITE OF THE OLD FORT STABLES, NE. corner Fenton and
Marmaton Sts., occupied by a storage barn, is designated by a bronze
marker. Another bronze marker, midway in the block, marks the SITE OF
THE FRONTIER BARRACKS.
The FORT SCOTT MUSEUM (open 9-5, daily), 103 Blair St., oc
cupies one of the three remaining officers quarters built during the first
year of the fort s existence. The museum, the property of the Fort Scott
Historical Society, contains souvenirs of the early fort, a collection of In
dian relics, and, among other things, pictures of the town as it was in the
1850*5 and i86o s. These are framed and mounted on walnut pedestals
made from pillars of a fourth officers quarters that stood at the opposite
end of the block. The museum building, a two-and-one-half-story house of
Georgian Colonial design was operated as the Free State Hotel in the late
i85o s. It was remodeled in 1938 as a WPA project.
The GOODLANDER CHILDREN S HOME (open with permis
sion of superintendent), 107 Blair St., is in another of the officers quarters.
The home, founded January 17, 1903, and named for C. W. Good-
lander, who provided funds for its opening, is non-sectarian. It is sup
ported by an annual appropriation of $500 from the State, monthly con
tributions from Fort Scott business men and residents of Bourbon County,
and through the proceeds from "Tag Day" held annually in Fort Scott to
raise money for improvements.
The OFFICERS QUARTERS (open with permission of manager),
in Blair St., the third of the remaining buildings, has been made into an
apartment house although the building has undergone little change.
Immediately behind the three officers quarters are several small
STONE HOUSES used by the troops as store houses. Behind these are the
FORT STABLES built with stone walls 14 inches thick. The stables are two
stories high with a huge hand-hewn beam between the stories.
The SITE OF THE OLD FORT GUARDHOUSE, corner of Lin
coln and Fenton Sts., occupied by the city jail, is designated by a bronze
plaque. The guardhouse was built in 1843.
The FORT HOSPITAL, 106 Fenton St., is now used as a storage
barn. Occupying its original site the old building has undergone little
change except that the porches have been removed.
The NATIONAL CEMETERY, on E. National Ave. i m. E. of
National Ave., was established by act of Congress in 1862 and dedicated as
FORT SCOTT 197
a burial place for United States soldiers. The cemetery s 10 acres are en
closed by a stone fence, with entrance through a folding iron gate. Four
mounted cannon guard the rostrum on the knoll near the center of the
grounds. From a tall shaft in the center of the rostrum the American flag
flies over the graves of Civil, Spanish-American, and World War soldiers.
Here, too, is the grave of Eugene F. Ware.
East National Avenue, the approach to the cemetery, is known locally
as "orphan street." Neither the city nor the State claim the thoroughfare,
and it has been allowed to fall into bad condition.
The HOME OF EUGENE WARE (private), SW. corner Eddy
and 2nd Sts., is known as the Drake Home. A two-story white frame
structure, the house has been remodeled throughout since Ware made his
home there in the i88o s and 1890*5. Eugene Fitch Ware is best known
for his Rhymes of Ironquill, which ran through 13 editions. He came to
Kansas as a young man shortly after the Civil War, was admitted to the
bar, and in the latter part of the century served for a number of years as
editor of the Fort Scott Monitor.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Rock Creek Lake, 9 m.; Elm Creek Lake, 25.1 m. (see Tour 5); Crawford
County State Park, 27 m. (see Tour 13).
Hutctinson
Railroad Stations: 3rd Ave. and Walnut St. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. ;
C and Main Sts. for Missouri Pacific R.R. ; Ave. D and Main St. for Chicago, Rock
Island & Pacific Ry. and Arkansas Valley Interurban Ry.
Bus Stations: 18 E. 2nd Ave. for Cardinal and Southern Kansas Stage Lines, and
Greyhound and Santa Fe Trail ways.
Airport: Municipal airport, E. city limits, N. of US 508; no scheduled service.
Taxis: io0, upward.
Traffic Regulations: Traffic lights; straight ahead or right on green, left turn on
amber, stop on red.
Accommodations: Eight hotels, boarding houses, tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 203 W. ist Ave.
Radio Station: KWBG (1420 kc.).
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Little Theater, Richardson Hall; five motion
picture houses in winter, four in summer.
Swimming: Carey Municipal Park, Park and Main Sts.; Stevens Swimming Pool,
1501 E. ist Ave.
Golf: Carey Municipal Park, 18 holes; greens fee 250 weekdays, 350 Sundays and
holidays; Country Club, 8 m. NW. on county road, 18 holes; greens fee $i. Prairie
Dunes Golf Club, 4 m. E. on county road, 9 holes; greens fee $i, weekdays; $2
Sundays and holidays.
Tennis: Public courts in Carey Municipal Park.
Baseball: Carey Municipal Park.
Wrestling and Boxing: Convention Hall, Ave. A and Walnut St.
Annual Events: Fourth of July Fiesta; Kansas State Fair, Sept.
HUTCHINSON (1,530 alt., 27,085 pop.), fourth largest city in Kansas,
lies slightly south and east of the center of the State on the north bank of
the Arkansas River. The city spreads out in the level valley land in the
form of the letter "T", its base extending eastward and its broad arms
reaching north and south. Although typical of the cattle country in its
friendliness, its lack of social distinctions, and in the clean way its broad
streets meet the open prairie, Hutchinson is a city of mills and factories.
Laid out with a lavish hand by pioneers who had more land than any
thing else, Hutchinson has long straight streets, broad lawns, and many
parks. Unlike most Kansas river towns, it did not begin at the river s edge,
but grew from a tiny cluster of houses on Cow Creek which follows a
parallel course approximately one-half mile north of the river. Creeping
southward until it reached the river and at the same time pushing into the
prairie land on the north and east, Hutchinson has practically swallowed
up the narrow creek. Busy streets cross the creek bed in the residential sec
tions and it is routed through huge tiles beneath the structures in the heart
of the business section.
Main Street, crossing the subterranean channel of Cow Creek at Ave-
198
HUTCHINSON 199
nue A, cuts squarely across town from north to south. Through a district
of shabby stores and garages near the river it passes into the main business
section, emerging finally into the better residential districts as it nears the
northern outskirts.
Business houses for the most part are brick structures two and three
stories in height with here and there a four-, five-, or eight-story building
occupying an important corner. Homes near the business section date back
to the 1890*5 and the early 1900*5, built by the first fortunes made in salt
and cattle and in prairie real estate. Surrounding these are houses of Cali
fornia bungalow type, flanked by rows of prim new residences of varying
architectural designs. The lower-income residential areas of Hutchinson
are west and east of the business section, their neat but shabby streets
hugging close to the river and the railroad tracks.
The irregular bulk of flour mills and the concrete cylinders of grain
elevators dominate the industrial area, which lies approximately a mile
east of the retail district. Nearby are salt plants, a refinery, railroad yards,
and numerous smaller industrial concerns. Along the railroad tracks on the
west side of Hutchinson is a second industrial district, and across the Ar
kansas River at the south city limits is still another group of mills and ele
vators, another refinery, and a nationally known salt plant.
The importance of the salt industry to the city of Hutchinson is evident
to the casual observer, and "Salt City" is often substituted for Hutchinson
in names of business firms. Built above salt deposits, reputedly among the
richest in the world, Hutchinson s chief industry is the mining, processing,
and shipment of salt. Deposits that underlie the greater part of the metro
politan area and the surrounding country are approximately 600 feet
below the surface and range from 300 to 350 feet in thickness. The city s
three salt-processing plants ship 3,000,000 barrels of salt annually to mar
kets in all parts of the United States and geologists estimate that the sup
ply is practically inexhaustible. Plants and mines employ approximately
600 men.
Although somewhat less spectacular, Hutchinson s wheat shipping and
storage industry attains heights in "wheat years" untouched by the com
paratively steady salt industry. As the seat of Reno County, the most im
portant wheat-producing area of Kansas, Hutchinson is a key city for the
shipment and milling of grain from the adjacent area and from the great
fields of southwestern Kansas. With eight elevators and three flour mills,
Hutchinson has storage facilities for more than IO,QOO,OOO bushels of
grain. Claiming to be the smallest city in the world with its own grain
market dealing in futures, Hutchinson points to a ten-year average of grain
receipts at its markets in the period from 1925 to 1935, exceeding 46,-
000,000 bushels a year. Thirty grain firms maintain offices in the city.
Surrounded on all sides by oil fields, Hutchinson s petroleum industry
has developed gradually, but gives promise of exceeding both salt and
wheat in importance. A producing well, flowing at the rate of 3,600 bar
rels of high gravity oil a day, is only nine miles east of the city and more
than 1,500 additional wells are within a radius of 100 miles of the city
limits. Adjacent to Hutchinson on the east is Kansas most productive gas
20O CITIES AND TOWNS
well, yielding 128,600,000 cubic feet a day. Hutchinson has two refin
eries, numerous distribution and supply companies, and long dark lines of
tank cars mingle with those loaded with wheat in its railroad yards.
Named for its founder, C. C. Hutchinson, the city was platted in No
vember 1871, its first streets lying on both sides of Cow Creek near the
spot where the new Santa Fe Railway was to cross the Arkansas River. To
encourage settlement by sober, industrious persons, Hutchinson included
a clause in the deed to each lot specifying that if liquor were sold or given
away thereon at any time prior to 1875, the property and all improvements
would revert back to the original owner. After 1875 Hutchinson hoped
that the moral sentiment of the settlers would be strong enough to control
the liquor traffic.
To the builder of the first house on the townsite Hutchinson offered to
give one of the choice lots in the settlement. This prize was won by A. F.
Homer who moved a black walnut building from the nearby town of
Newton. This was not the first prize Horner s portable house had won for
its builder. When the town of Brookville was founded on the Kansas
Pacific Railroad in the early 1870 $ its promoters, like Hutchinson s, of
fered a town lot to the persons who built the first house. Horner quickly
built a house 20 by 60 feet which won the prize, but soon moved it to the
new town of Florence on the Santa Fe Railway to win another lot.
Horner was settled in the draughty house in Florence when the Santa
Fe pushed westward to Newton and promoters of that settlement offered
a similar prize. In due time Horner won it with his mobile walnut house.
Moving it for the last time to Hutchinson, Horner placed it on a lot at
the corner of First and Main Streets where it remained until it was torn
down to make room for a more modern structure. The building served as
C. C. Hutchinson s real estate office, the town s first post office, and first
hotel.
When Hutchinson was incorporated as a third class city in August 1872,
Horner s much-traveled building was only one of a number of low build
ings along Main Street. The town boasted a newspaper, the Hutchinson
News, an inn, and a cluster of stores and houses. The promoters plowed
a wide furrow around the settlement to protect it from the fires that swept
so swiftly across the level grass-covered prairie, and, since stones for street
markers were scarce, citizens marked off streets with buffalo bones. The
Santa Fe Railway reached the Arkansas River crossing and Hutchinson
in the summer of 1872, but pushed westward almost immediately.
Having visions of Hutchinson as a prairie metropolis and a seat of cul
ture and learning, the settlers made plans for churches and schools soon
after their arrival. The first regular church meetings were held in a build
ing that on weekdays served as a butcher shop. During the second summer
of Hutchinson s existence residents voted $15,000 in bonds to build a
school building. Literary and musical societies were formed early, and in
1882 the Hutchinson opera house was built by public subscription on the
northeast corner of First Avenue and Main Street. The News carried long
paragraphs on the activities of Hutchinson s cultural societies and the
IN A SALT MINE, HUTCHINSON
town s social leaders sponsored home talent performances at the opera
house for special occasions, when "traveling talent" was not available.
By 1885 Hutchinson had attained a certain importance as a shipping
and trading center. The production of Turkey Red wheat, a variety par
ticularly adaptable to prairie soil, was increasing yearly, and its increase
was accompanied by the growing importance of Hutchinson as a milling
center.
A few years later, following the discovery of natural gas, a wave of
prosperity swept southwestern Kansas and in 1887 Sam Blanchard of
Hutchinson drilled the first well in the vicinity on a farm south of the
city. At approximately 300 feet the drill struck salt and although local
residents were mildly amazed to learn that salt deposits existed beneath
the city they hardly considered prospects of a future industry until New
York promoters had a plant in operation almost in the heart of the city.
By 1888 almost a dozen salt plants were in operation in and near Hutch
inson and the city s salt industry was permanently established less than
two years after the mineral was discovered.
Growing slowly and experiencing no booms, Hutchinson had a popu
lation of 9,000 in 1900 and by 1910 had grown to more than 16,000. In
the 1920*5 oil wealth began to filter in from the south and west, and the
202 CITIES AND TOWNS
plentiful supply of cheap natural gas fuel attracted many smaller indus
tries.
Hutchinson is the home of Gov. Walter A. Huxman, 2yth Governor of
the State, and one of the five Democrats elected to the office since Kansas
was admitted to statehood in 1861.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The RENO COUNTY COURTHOUSE, NW. corner ist Ave. and
Adams St., completed in 1930, is a fine example of modern architecture.
The structure which cost approximately a half -million dollars, is of Indiana
Bedford stone, Virginia marble, and yellow brick. In the courtroom, the
most highly decorated chamber in the building, is a mural painting by the
New York artist Adrenanti, an allegory of mercy, justice, and execution.
The SOLDIERS MONUMENT, in ist Ave. Park, ist Ave. and Walnut
St., was erected to the memory of veterans of the Civil War by members
of the Joe Hooker Post, G. A. R., of Hutchinson. The monument, dedi
cated in 1919, is surmounted by the figure of Abraham Lincoln with life-
size figures of soldiers and sailors of the Civil War upon each corner.
The SUN DIAL MONUMENT, in Sylvan Park, NE. corner Wal
nut St. and Ave. B, commemorates President Har ding s visit to Hutchin
son in 1923 when he spoke at the park s dedication.
The KANSAS STATE INDUSTRIAL REFORMATORY (open on
application), S. end of Reformatory Ave., is a penal institution for delin
quents between 15 and 25 years of age. It comprises 1,300 acres within
the city of Hutchinson and controls 21 farms with a combined acreage of
4,000 acres adjacent to the city. The average wheat yield of the institution
is 18,000 bushels, and the sale of surplus swine contributes $8,000 annu
ally toward its upkeep. The automobile tag factory, where Kansas State
automobile license tags are manufactured, has an output of 4,000 tags a
day. The institution houses approximately 1,000 inmates.
The BARTON SALT PLANT (open on application; guides), Cleve
land and Campbell Sts. processes salt by evaporation. Water is forced
into the salt wells and the salt brought to the surface in the form
of salt brine. In time the moisture evaporates and impurities in the salt
are removed.
The CAREY SALT PLANT (open on application; guides), Poplar
St. and Avenue B, also processes salt by evaporation.
The CAREY LABORATORY (open on application; guides), on the grounds
of the Carey plant is among the largest and most complete laboratories of
its kind in the United States. Here salt from the mines is tested and new
methods for purifying devised.
The CAREY ROCK SALT MINE (open mornings only; guides),
E. end Carey Blvd. at city limits, although owned by the Carey Company
operates separately from the plant.
Mine visitors descend 645 feet to the mine bottom by way of an elec
tric elevator in one minute and twenty seconds. Here they are permitted
to explore the 200 rooms of the mine and see the maze of subterranean
**
SALT PLANT, HUTCHINSON
railroad tracks by which salt is transported to the elevators. Rooms are
50 feet in width, 300 feet in length and have ceilings of rock salt from
7 to 10 feet high.
The "skip," or elevator, with a four-ton capacity raises the salt to the
mill on the surface in slightly more than a minute although its speed may
be increased to enable it to carry 1,000 tons of salt from the mine floor
in an eight-hour working day. Cars that convey salt from the mine rooms
to the "skip" carry between 20 and 25 tons of salt each trip and are filled
by motor-driven loaders which complete the task in 15 minutes.
The mine is electrically lighted and electric power is used throughout,
the company claiming that in this mine electricity is more extensively used
than in any other salt mine in the world.
The shaft of the mine was begun in May 1922 and completed in June
1923. Former Governor Jonathan M. Davis touched the button which
brought the first official "skip" of salt to the surface on June 23, 1923.
The mine employs approximately 60 men, and the mill, unlike other plants
in Hutchinson, processes salt by crushing and sifting.
204 CITIES AND TOWNS
CAREY MUNICIPAL PARK, Main St. between Park Ave. and the
Arkansas River, a gift of Emerson Carey to the city of Hutchinson, is en
tered by a drive that affords a view of the Arkansas River, the park la
goons, sunken gardens, swimming pool, baseball field, golf course, play
grounds, and picnic grounds, and circles back to the entrance past the
police rifle range.
The EMERSON CAREY MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN, at the park entrance,
is an electrically lighted fountain backed by a decorative stone arch. The
spray design of the fountain changes constantly for an hour and a half
without repeating the same pattern. Dedicated October 24, 1935, the foun
tain was built by subscriptions from Hutchinson business men and dedi
cated to the memory of the late Emerson Carey, former owner of the
Carey salt interests and prominent Hutchinson philanthropist.
The MORTON SALT STABILIZED HIGHWAY, connecting Main
St. with the Morton plant, was built by accident. At intervals loads
of salt were dumped into soft places along the old dirt road that once
connected the plant with the city pavement until the thoroughfare was
completely surfaced with salt. Through experimentation and constant up
keep by plant workers the road has become a satisfactory thoroughfare for
heavy trucks and wagons.
The MORTON SALT PLANT (open on application; guides), at
the N. end of Morton Salt Stabilized Highway, is one of the seven Mor
ton salt plants in the United States. It refines salt by purifying and evap
orating brine from deep wells. The staff of the plant s laboratory does
research work for the entire western division of the company s holdings,
an area which includes Kansas, Texas, California, and Utah.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Burrton oil fields, 17.2 m. (see Tour 4A).
(<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<&&gt;>>>>>>>>>>>
Kansas City
Railroad Stations: Union Station, center 7th St. Viaduct, W. side 7th St. Trafficway,
for Union Pacific R.R. and Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Ry. ; Kansas City Terminal
Station, 434 Central Ave., for Missouri Pacific R.R. and Chicago Great Western
R.R.; 1900 Olathe Blvd. for Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R.; 26th St. and Powell Ave.
for Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. ; 100 S. 8th St. (Rosedale) for St. Louis-San
Francisco Ry. Union Ticket Offices, 914 N. 6th St.
Bus Station: Union Bus Depot, 754 Minnesota Ave. for Missouri Pacific, Union
Pacific, Greyhound, Cardinal Stage, and Santa Fe Lines.
Airports: Fairfax Airport, 2.5 m. NE. of business district on Fairfax Rd., U. S.
Naval Base, training field and planes for hire; no passenger service. Kansas City
Municipal Airport, 102 Richards Rd., Kansas City. Mo. 3 m. E. of Kansas City,
Kans., business district, for Braniff, Hanford, and the Transcontinental & Western
Air Inc. Lines.
Taxis: Minimum fare io0.
Piers: ist St. and Minnesota Ave.
Streetcars: Fare io0, tokens four for 350, unlimited weekly pass $1.60. Supple
mentary bus lines weekly pass $1.25.
Traffic Regulations: Turns may be made in either direction at intersections of all
streets except where traffic lights or officers direct otherwise. Stop signs at inter
sections and school crossings, parking limitations signs on main business streets.
Accommodations: Two hotels, tourist camps.
Information Service: General, Chamber of Commerce, 727 Minnesota Ave.; road
information, Kansas Motor Club, 642 State Ave.
Radio Station: KCKN (1310 kc.).
Motion Picture Houses: Three downtown and n neighborhood houses; two for
Negroes.
Su imming: Clifton Park Pool, 2ist St. and Riverview Ave.; Klamm Park Pool,
22nd St. and Cleveland Ave.; Edgerton Park Pool (Negro), 3rd St. and Edgerton
Ave. ; Shawnee Park bath-house, NW. corner Pyle St. and Osage Ave. ; Rosedale
Pool, 29th St. and Springfield Ave. Admission 50 to 4:30 p.m., io0 evenings, holi
days, and Sundays. Pools open during July and Aug.
Golf: Victory Hills Golf Club, i8-hole, greens fee, }O0 weekdays, 750 Saturday,
$i Sunday, 5 m. W. on US 40 to Vance Rd.; Quivira Lake Golf course, 9-hole,
greens fee, 50 cents weekdays, $i Saturday, $1.25 Sunday, 9 m. SW Argentine-
Holliday Rd., arrange courtesy card of admission at Chamber of Commerce or Qui
vira Club.
Tennis: Heathwood Park, loth St. & Stewart Ave., 2 courts; Westheight Manor
Park, 2oth St. & Wood Ave., 6; Bethany Park, nth St. & Central Ave., 4; Shawnee
Park, 7th St. & Osage Ave., 2; Emerson Park, 29th St. & Strong Ave., 4; City Park,
4122 Rainbow Blvd., 12; Klamm Park, 22nd St. & Cleveland Ave., 6; Quindaro
Park, 34th St. & Parkview Ave., 4; Parkwood Park, 9th St. & Quindaro Blvd., 2;
Big Eleven Lake, nth St. & Washington Blvd., 4.
Riding: Royal Riding Academy, Calvin Lake, 3 m. W. on Reidy Rd.; Wonderland
Park stables, 44th St. and Muncie Blvd.
Annual Events: Kansas Day celebration, Jan. 29; Military ball on Mon. following
Lent; Music Week, first week after Easter; Mexican fiestas, May 5, Sept. 15 and
16; Wyandotte Garden Club Flower Show last week of May; American Royal Live
205
WYANDOTTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, KANSAS CITY
Stock and Horse Show, Oct. or first of Nov.; American Legion Posts: Annual ball
sponsored by Company G of i37th Infantry, date set by committee.
KANSAS CITY, Kansas (773 alt, 121,857 PP-)> at ^ e confluence of
the Missouri and Kansas Rivers at the eastern edge of the State, is the
largest city in Kansas and the seat of Wyandotte County.
Its position is one of great natural advantages. Situated in the heart of
the central plains region, Kansas City, with Kansas City, Missouri, forms
the industrial center for this vast region. Kansas City, Missouri, joins it on
the east, and so closely are they connected there is no apparent division.
On the north, south, and west are undulating farm lands, checkered with
fields of wheat and corn. Here, too, are stores of natural resources; small
oil and gas wells, rich limestone deposits, and stream beds yielding sand
valued at one million dollars annually. Near to the city are dairy farms,
truck gardens, and suburban estates. Highways are lined with commercial
signs, tourist camps, and wayside markets.
Within the city limits the undulating character of the terrain is intensi
fied. The Kansas River, flowing from the southwest, approximately bisects
the urban area, and on either side of the narrow valley is spread a series of
hills and precipitous bluffs. Seventh Street Trafficway, traversing the city
from north to south, has as many "dips" as a roller-coaster railway, not
withstanding the three viaducts bridging the river and seven railway lines.
Due to the hills and to the manner of its growth, its streets are not
KANSAS CITY 2Oy
^egularly patterned for Kansas City has not grown around a single in
dustrial unit; it is a consolidation of villages. Eight individual towns were
merged to form the present corporate limits, resulting in many angling
and broken thoroughfares, and in five "main" streets, each centered in its
own business and residential district.
Although there is no anparent division between the two cities, Kansas
City, Kansas, has jealously retained a definite identity. The city points
with pride to the fact that a majority of the great industrial plants in the
river bottoms are on the Kansas side of the line, although they are alv.
included in an industrial survey of the Missouri city.
Greater Kansas City, which includes both cities and their suburbs, has
.pilled over a large area in four counties, two in each State. On the Kansas
side it has grown steadily southward until it has crossed the Wyandotte
County line into Johnson County, where there are many comfortable
suburban homes. Paradoxically, Kansas City, Missouri s, most exclusive
residential development, Indian Hills, is also well within the borders of
Johnson County, Kansas.
On June 26, 1804, Lewis and Clark passed through the territory on
their expedition to the Pacific Coast. They landed on the neck of land be
tween the two rivers that is called "Kaw Point," a part of the present city,
and rested for two days, making observations, and overhauling equipment.
Two years later, after crossing the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, they
stopped at this point on their return voyage. On Monday, August 15,
1806, Clark wrote in his diary: "The Kansas is very low at this time.
About a mile below it we landed to view the situation of a high hill,
which has many advantages for a trading house or fort; while on shore
we gathered great quantities of pawpaws, and shot an elk. The low
grounds are now delightful, and the whole country exhibits a rich ap
pearance. . . ."
This was the first written description of the territory. Twelve years later
it was made a part of the reservation granted to the Delaware Indians.
Twenty-five years later 1843 it was purchased from the Delaware
by the Wyandot, who laid the foundation for the present city.
The Wyandot, the last of the emigrant tribes, came from Sandusky,
Ohio, as a band of 700 not savages, but an educated, and in many in
stances a cultured people. Intermarried with whites from generations back,
they were more white than Indian; their leaders were men of influence
and ability. They laid out the town, Wyandot City, in 1843, the first log
cabin being completed and occupied on December 10. Within twelve
months, despite flood and sickness and the delay of the Federal Govern
ment in paying them for their Ohio reservation improvements, they had
built a school, the first free school in Kansas; a church, the organization
of which they brought from Ohio; a store owned in common by the na
tion; and a council house in which they were to take far-reaching action.
The Wyandot were farmers, devoted to rural pursuits rather than urban
practices; and the little city grew very slowly until 1849, when the Cali
fornia gold rush placed it on the great highway to the Pacific an alarm
ing situation to Wyandot leaders. From past experiences, they knew that
208 CITIES AND TOWNS
the white men invading their precincts, sooner or later, would covet their
lands and that what white men wanted they would obtain. All they could
do was increase the value and obtain the best price possible. To accom
plish this they must induce white men to settle among them ; and to bring
white men they must assume a Territorial status.
With this object in view, they met on October 12, 1852, in their coun
cil house and elected Abelard Guthrie, a white man married into the tribe,
as a delegate to the Thirty-second Congress. Guthrie was not admitted to
Congress, but his presence in Washington forced the Territorial question
a fact of which Wyandot leaders were fully cognizant. On July 26,
1853, they met to take the more compelling action of organizing Kansas-
Nebraska into a provisional Territory, electing William Walker as Gov
ernor, and re-electing Guthrie to the Thirty-third Congress.
Although this action also failed of recognition, it did serve to project
the little city of Wyandot into the national limelight. Kansas, by the Mis
souri Compromise, was neutral territory. If it came into the Union as a Free
State, the balance of power would be thrown to the North; and it was
known that a majority of the Wyandot were with the North. (In 1848
when their church was divided, 135 of the 200 members had espoused the
Northern cause.) Thus, in this little Indian Settlement was staged a pre
liminary to the national conflict (see HISTORY).
In the meantime, in 1855, the Wyandot petitioned for and received the
rights of citizens with their lands in severalty. This enabled them to dis
pose of their property, which they did promptly; within a short time
Wyandot City passed into the hands of white men, and the Wyandot as a
nation disappeared from Kansas. Although advanced in civilization, they
were not equal to the white man s often unscrupulous shrewdness ; and in
1868, having dissipated the proceeds of the sale of their property, they
petitioned to be reinstated as wards of the Government. The petition was
granted. Those who chose were restored to the nation and given a home
with the Cherokee in Oklahoma. The few families who preferred to re
tain citizenship, remained in the city, where some of their descendants
still reside.
The white settlers who succeeded them established a post office in the
spring of 1857, opened two banks the same year, and transformed the
quiet village into a booming town, which they called "Wyandotte."
Other towns sprang up nearby. Quindaro, on the bank of the Missouri
a little to the north and west, was founded in 1856 by Abelard Guthrie,
Charles Robinson, and others, and was named for Guthrie s Wyandot
wife, Quindaro Brown Guthrie. Intended as a Free State port to compete
with the pro-slavery towns of Westport, Missouri, and Leavenworth, it
was widely advertised and grew rapidly, for two years rivaling Wyandotte.
Ambitious for the trade of the Southwest, Wyandotte built a road to the
Kansas River and established a free ferry. Quindaro retaliated with a sim
ilar road and ferry. Wyandotte then after effecting incorporation January
29, 1859, and electing its first mayor, James B. Parr, in February shifted
its business section from Nebraska Avenue to the levee, where a block of
business buildings was erected and Quindaro had no answer. One of
IN THE STOCKYARDS, KANSAS CITY
those buildings was "Constitutional Hall," wherein, July 1859, the con
stitution of Kansas was written; and by that constitution the county of
Wyandotte was erected with Wyandotte as the county seat. Quindaro s
prosperity declined and came to an end during the Civil War.
In 1860, James McGrew established a slaughter house in the bottoms
now occupied by the stockyards; in 1866 the railroad connecting Wyan
dotte with Topeka was completed; and in 1868, Edward Patterson and
J. W. Slavens oegan the first packing house with an annual kill of 4,000
animals. However, it was due to Charles F. Adams, descendant of Presi
dents John and John Quincy Adams, that Kansas City became a meat
packing center. Adams acquired several large tracts of land in the Kansas
River Valley, now occupied by Armourdale and the central industrial dis
trict, and built the first of the stockyards. He then persuaded Plankington
210 CITIES AND TOWNS
and Armour to remove the packing house they had set up in Missouri to
Kansas that it might be convenient to his stockyards. This they did in
1871, beginning the present Armour plant and the first of the major
packing units. Today Kansas City has eleven packing houses, including
those of the "Big Four"- Armour, Swift, Cudahy, and Wilson requiring
the services of seven trunkline railroads.
Around the railroad and packing houses other towns grew up. Old
Kansas City, Kansas, on the strip of ground between the Kansas River and
the Missouri line, was platted in 1868 and incorporated October 22,
1872; Armstrong, on the hill to the south, was established in 1871.
Armourdale, named for the packers, in the low ground south of Arm
strong, was founded in 1871 and incorporated in 1882; while Riverview,
built on the hill between Armstrong and Wyandotte, came into being in
1879.
These towns, all within a figurative stone s throw and animated with
boom times, soon were crowding each other; the need for consolidation
became apparent. Agitation was begun in 1876, but it was not until 1880
that Riverview petitioned and became a part of Wyandotte. In 1886 old
Kansas City and Armourdale were annexed by legislative enactment, and
Armstrong was included as intervening territory. Much discussion arose
over the proper name for the consolidated city. Wyandotte held out for
its name, but as it was argued that municipal bonds would sell better
under the title of Kansas City, Kansas, that was finally adopted.
Still the city was not complete. Across the Kansas River to the south
were Rosedale and Argentine. Rosedale took its name from the wild rose
covering the bluffs when it was a wayside stop on the Santa Fe Trail. It
was platted in 1872 and received impetus from the rolling mill opened in
1875. Argentine grew up around the Santa Fe Railway shops and yards,
established in 1880, and the plant of the Consolidated Kansas City Smelt
ing and Refining Company, which drew raw materials from all over the
country and sent its smelted gold and silver to the mints of the world.
Argentine, so named from the Spanish word for silver, became a part of
the city by petition in 1909; Rosedale was forced in by legislative enact
ment in 1922. Meanwhile, Quindaro, having rescinded its incorporation
and reverted to Quindaro Township, was absorbed by natural expansion.
And so the present city was formed.
The "Exodusters," freed Negroes from the South, and European peas
ants Germans, Russians, Poles, Croats, Czechs, Slovakians lured by the
prospects of freedom in a new land, increased the city s population in
the late iSoo s.
The coming of the Negroes spread over a period of twenty years fol
lowing the Civil War, but the peak was reached between 1878 and 1882.
In that four-year period twenty thousand are said to have landed on the
city s levee. Large numbers were sent on to Atchison, Topeka, and other
towns in the State; others were returned to the South. The majority, how
ever, remained in Kansas City and were absorbed by its growing indus
tries. Homes were found along Jersey Creek in a settlement called "Rat-
tlebone Hollow," and in old Quindaro; while literally hundreds squatted
KANSAS CITY 211
on the levee, putting up shanties of scrapwood to form what was known
as "Juniper," or "Mississippi Town."
"Mississippi Town" went out of existence in 1924, when it was con
demned as an unsightly nuisance, and that part of the levee was trans
formed into the Woodswether industrial district. "Rattlebone Hollow" is
still extant, although the Negroes are not confined to that area. As their
economic conditions improved and numbers increased, they have spread
over virtually the entire city, forming a substantial civic group. Negro in
stitutions include a university, a hospital, and a high school. There are
also two Negro weekly newspapers.
The European immigrants first settled around the packing houses, but
have since moved to other parts of the city. "Strawberry Hill," a part of
old Riverview, is a Slavic settlement which retains many native customs,
although this racial group is fast being assimilated.
Kansas City s industries, except for odors from stockyards and packing
houses, are not obtrusive. Yet they are present to an astonishing extent.
Hay market and grain storage facilities are the largest in the world. Stock
yards and meat-packing houses are second only to Chicago; and not even
Chicago has all of the "Big Four," with complete processing plants, as
Kansas City has. Serum plants, manufacturing serum for the protection
of animal health, rank first in the United States. Soap factories draw raw
materials from various parts of the world and distribute their manufac
tured products throughout North America. Fabricating steel mills are the
largest west of the Mississippi; and flour mills, oil refineries, railway
shops and yards, and innumerable other activities contribute importantly
to its economic stability.
In the early days of Kansas City s industries, the bulk of traffic was
carried by steamboats on the Missouri River. Today (1938) this river
traffic is being revived. The city owns 90^/2 acres of levee land and, in
conjunction with the Public Works Administration, is engaged in an im
mense levee development project. Aiding this work, Congress, by an act of
July 3, 1930, provided for a survey to determine the possibility of re
establishing barges not only on the Missouri River, but on the Kansas as
well. Navigation of the Missouri is now a reality, and barges of i,ooo-ton
capacity are planned to operate on the Kansas to a distance of 9.5 miles
above its mouth.
POINTS OF INTEREST^
1. HURON BUILDING, 907-909 N. yth St., 12 stories in height, is
the city s tallest building. Built in 1923 by the Elks Club, with a ballroom
and roof garden, it is now devoted to offices.
2. WYANDOTTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 7 th St. between Ann
and Barrett Aves., built in 1927, was designed in the neoclassic style by
Wight & Wight of Kansas City, Mo., and constructed of Bedford stone
and reenforced concrete. The front is decorated with a frieze of Greek
plaques symbolizing the leading industries of Kansas, fluted Doric col
umns, and carved inscriptions. Interior walls of the first floor are of Italian
travertine with floors or terrazzo, bordered with tile and Tennessee mar-
212
CITIES AND TOWNS
KANSAS CITY
213
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214 CITIES AND TOWNS
ble. On the third floor, the main hall, with its barrel-vaulted ceiling,
forms the beautiful Hall of Courts.
3. SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MEMORIAL BUILDING (open),
yth St. between Barnett and Tauromee Aves., of neoclassic design some
what freely adapted was erected in 1924 as a monument to Wyandotte
County s World War heroes and is really two buildings, combining a
civic auditorium with the Memorial Hall, which contains military trophies,
memorial tablets, and photographs. Rose and Peterson of Kansas City
were the architects.
4. The WALLER RESIDENCE (private), 524 Ann Ave., a one-story
frame structure, was brought by boat from Cincinnati in 1858, and is one
of the oldest in the city. Governor Charles Robinson is believed to have
once used the front room for his office.
5. ST. MARY S CHURCH, NW. corner 5 th St. and Ann Ave., the
city s first Catholic church, was founded by Father Anton Kuhls, who also
founded the first hospital. The site of three acres was purchased in 1865
from Mathias Splitlog, a Wyandot, for $800, and the first building was
erected on the SE. corner of 6th and Ann Ave. that year. The present
building of gray limestone, designed in the English Gothic style, was
dedicated in 1903. Three altars of white oak, brought from Louisville,
Ky., were temporarily lost in the 1903 flood, but arrived in the city on
Saturday morning before the dedication on Sunday. At noon 25 men were
set to work, completing the installation at midnight.
6. The OLD WATER TOWER (not open), Fowler St., 100 yards S.
of Ann Ave., 40 feet high, suggesting the lookout of a feudal castle, was
erected in 1905-1906 as a part of the old Kansas City, Mo., water plant.
Prior to the 1903 flood, the connection was a pipeline bridged over the
Kansas River. The bridge was washed out in the flood, and a tunnel was
then made under the river and the tower erected. During the World War
a guard station was maintained in the tower to prevent dynamiting or
other possible destruction.
The PANORAMIC VIEW, from the end of Missouri Pacific Bridge,
Minnesota Ave. and 2nd St., is sweeping and comprehensive. Directly in
the foreground is the junction of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, form
ing Kaw Point, where Lewis and Clark landed in 1804. To the right is
the overhead span of the Inter-city Viaduct and the James St. Bridge.
Across the Kansas River SE. is the hill described by Clark as advantageous
for a trading house or fort. At the foot of this hill is the strip of ground
where the Wyandot camped and 60 died while their leaders negotiated
land from the Delaware. Directly ahead, on the left side of the Missouri
River, is the Municipal Airport, with planes flying above waters where
once chugged slow-moving steamboats; and beyond it are the elevators
and towers of North Kansas City. On the left, back across the Missouri,
is the Fairfax industrial district, with the cone-topped tanks of the Phillips
Petroleum Company, and the floorlike fields of Fairfax Airport, and im
mediately to the left is the site of the business block of old Wyandot, with
the new terminal elevator and dock directly in front.
7. SITE OF CONSTITUTIONAL HALL, 2nd St. and Nebraska Ave.,
KANSAS CITY 215
is occupied by the Chicago & Great Western Elevator. Constitutional Hall,
built in 1858 by Lipman Meyer at a cost of $4,000, was a four-story
brick building poorly constructed and never finished, although the con
stitutional convention assembled there in July 1859, and framed the con
stitution of Kansas. Undermined by water, it collapsed in May 1861.
8. FIRST COURTHOUSE OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY (private),
328 Nebraska Ave., a weathered, two-story frame building on a high ter
race, was purchased from Isaiah Walker, a Wyandot, on July n, 1860,
for $1,800. It then stood on the back of the lot and was used as Wyan-
dotte s first post office. The county commissioners moved it to the front of
the lot and erected a Jog jail at the back. The jail has been demolished,
but the old courthouse is occupied as a residence by its present owner.
9. SITE OF WYANDOT COUNCIL HOUSE, 4 th St. at alley be
tween Nebraska and State Aves., is designated by a wooden marker with
the inscription, "Site of Wyandotte Indian Council House 1843-1861."
The one-story, frame building that stood on the site was the first free
school in Kansas and the council house of the Wyandot nation.
10. HURON PARK, Minnesota Ave. between 6th and yth Sts., heart
of the downtown district, was "permanently reserved and appropriated"
as a burial ground by the Wyandot in the treaty of 1855. In 1859, when
the Wyandotte City Town Company plat was filed, it was designated as
public grounds under the title of "Huron Place," with 150 square feet on
each of its four corners dedicated to church sites. Churches were erected
but have since been removed. Within the park are the Carnegie Library,
Municipal Rose Garden, and the Indian Cemetery.
The CARNEGIE LIBRARY (open 9-9 daily), an elaborate version of
Italian Renaissance architecture, was designed by W. W. Rose of Kansas
City and erected in 1920-1924. It contains among other paintings: The
Pioneer Woman by G. M. Stone of Topeka; Cherubs, ascribed by local
critics to Rubens ; and two large canvases, Rebecca at the Well and Ishmael
and Hagar, by Giobe Montine. The latter two were owned by Elizabeth
Patterson of Baltimore, wife of Jerome Bonaparte and hence sister-in-law
to the Emperor. They are supposed to have been the gift of the Emperor
himself. After the marriage was dissolved by Napoleon, the paintings
were placed on the market and purchased by Mrs. Mary E. Craddock,
widow of a former mayor, who presented them to the library.
The MUNICIPAL ROSE GARDEN (open daily and evenings), de
veloped in 1935, contains between 8,000 and 9,000 plants.
The INDIAN CEMETERY (Wyandot National Cemetery, locally called
Huron Cemetery), a scant two acres joining the library grounds on the
west, contains the remains of such Wyandot chiefs as Warpole, Tauromee,
George I. Clark, Big Tree, Serrahas, Squeendchtee, and Esquire Grey
Eyes, the Wyandot preacher. On the family stones are the names of the
Northrups, Zanes, Garrets, and others. The oldest stone is dated 1844.
After removal of the Wyandot from Kansas, obliteration threatened the
cemetery. In 1906, business men, with an eye to its commercial value,
caused a bill to be slipped through Congress, authorizing the sale of the
site and removal of the bodies to the second Wyandot cemetery at Quin-
2l6 CITIES AND TOWNS
daro. Wyandot descendants remaining in the city resisted the measure,
because in the 1850*5, when they sold most of their property, it was stip
ulated that their burial ground should be preserved. Litigation was carried
through all the courts in the country, reaching the United States Supreme
Court in 1910. That body upheld the decisions of the lower courts, which
had ruled in favor of the bill; but because of aroused public sentiment,
Congress, in 1913, repealed the statute and converted the cemetery into a
city park, extending sepulchral rights to the Wyandot. Closely associated
with the cemetery is the name of Lydia B. Conley, a member of the Zane
family, who led the fight to keep it intact. When removal of the bodies
was attempted, she padlocked the gates, erected a temporary shelter
known as Tort Conley," and mounted guard with a warning that it
would be "peril to trespass." As a qualified lawyer, she pleaded the
case before the Supreme Court, being the first woman to appear before
the court. In the winter of 1936-1937 Miss Conley obtained a restrain
ing order to prevent a proposed parking lot at the east side of the burial
grounds; and on June 7, 1937, she threatened bodily harm to park de
partment employees who were cutting grass and trimming trees in the
cemetery proper. For this she was arrested and given a lo-day jail sentence,
n. SEVENTH STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
SOUTH, NE. corner 7th St. and State Ave., erected in 1888, is a red brick
building with a square tower and steeple. The church was founded in
1848, when 65 members of the Wyandot "Church in the Wilderness,"
espousing the cause of the South, followed the example set by the Georgia
conference and seceded from the mother church.
12. WASHINGTON AVENUE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
NW. corner 7th St. and Washington Blvd., erected in 1924, is a three-
story building, constructed of native stone, and designed in the English
Gothic style, with exceptionally beautiful mullioned windows of cherry
red and royal blue glass. Charles E. Keyser of Kansas City was the archi
tect. The church organization dates back to 1844, when the Wyandot
built "The Church in the Wilderness." Bronze plaques in the vestibule
commemorate John Stewart, Negro missionary who first brought the
Methodist Church to the Wyandot in Ohio; and Lucy B. Armstrong,
daughter of a succeeding missionary and wife of a prominent Wyandot.
13. BIG ELEVEN LAKE, nth St. from Washington Blvd. to State
Ave., was, according to local legend, the haunt by night of sinister char
acters and the scene of many diabolical murders, the bodies supposedly
committed to its muggy waters. In 1934 it was drained, the bottom
sanded, and the banks sodded and decorated with a scalloped rock de
sign. After being refilled by the springs that feed it, it was stocked with
fish from the State Hatchery. The draining took place before a large
and curious audience, but when it was emptied, no human skeletons
were found, only a gold watch, an automobile tire, an assortment of tin
cans, and some fish.
14. KANSAS STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND (visitors by ap
pointment), State Ave., between nth and i2th Sts., a unit of the State
educational system, is on an oak-studded hillside of 9.6 acres. Curving
KANSAS CITY 2iy
drives lead to the 12 red brick buildings, the first of which was erected in
1866 as an asylum for the blind.
15. OAK GROVE CEMETERY, N. end of 3rd St., i2l/ 2 acres, over
looking the Missouri River, one of the oldest in the city, was purchased
from Sophia Walker Clement, daughter of Gov. William Walker, in
1868. Many pioneer families and notables connected with the city s his
tory are buried here, prominent among whom were Mary Tenney Gray
(1833-1904), "Mother of the Women s Club Movement," so called be
cause she initiated the Kansas Federation of Women s Clubs; William
Walker (1800-1874), Wyandot chief; and Mary A. Sturges (1809-
1892), Union Army nurse.
16. WESTERN UNIVERSITY (Negro), NW. corner 2yth and Grant
Sts., a coeducational institution, maintained by the African Methodist
Episcopal Church with State aid, was begun about 1862 as the Blatchely
School by the Reverend Eben Blatchely, a Presbyterian. Later it became
the Freedman s University and was converted into a normal school in
1872, when the first State aid was provided. From Blatchely s death in
1877, the school made little progress until 1896, when the Reverend
W. T. Vernon took charge. Under his management it has achieved a junior
college rating. The six red brick buildings are closely assembled on a hill
overlooking the Missouri River. On the campus is a statue of John Brown,
sculptured in Italy and unveiled June 9, 1911.
17. QUINDARO CEMETERY, NE. corner Smith and Parallel Rds.,
second Wyandot cemetery, was founded in 1852. The first interment was
that of Eliza S. Whitten, wife of the missionary, whose crumbling head
stone is dated January 3, 1852. Beside it is the stone of Lucy B. Arm
strong (1818-1892). Nearby was the grave (unmarked) of Katie Sage,
alias Sally-Between-the-Logs, who as a child in Virginia, was stolen from
her white parents by the Wyandot, brought up as a member of the tribe,
and married successively to three Wyandot chiefs.
1 8. ST. AUGUSTIN SEMINARY (open by appointment), Parallel
Rd., between 33rd and 34th Sts., was founded as the Kansas City Uni
versity in 1895 by Dr. Samuel F. Mather, descendant of Cotton Mather,
with the assistance of the Methodist Protestant Church. Dr. Mather, 84
years old, passed away a few hours after the plans were consummated
without seeing the realization of a life-long dream. The university at
tained a standard rating, but was never liberally patronized. On January
10, 1935, it was taken over by the Recollect Augustinian Fathers and con
verted into a mission seminary for priests. Three widely spaced brick
buildings on a shaded hilltop form the seminary group.
19. WYANDOTTE HIGH SCHOOL, SE. corner N. Washington
Blvd. and Minnesota Ave. covering three acres, is designed in the Lom-
bardic Romanesque style, with an "H"-shaped plan. Plans were drawn by
Hamilton, Nedved Fellows of Chicago, assisted by the firm of Joseph
W. Radotinsky of Kansas City. The construction of this brick and stone
building required the largest piece of fabricated steel ever produced by the
Kansas City Structural Steel Company an "I" beam, 100 feet long,
weighing more than one ton to the foot.
2l8 CITIES AND TOWNS
20. KANSAS CITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, Roach
Rd. between Armstrong and Barnett Aves., was opened in October 1902
as a training school for ministers, ministers wives, women church work
ers, and home missionaries. A feature of the institution is the Pratt-
Journeycake Library, 11,000 volumes of theological and general references
and other books. The library was founded by Nannie, daughter of the
Delaware chief, Charles Journeycake, who married Lucius Pratt, son of
John G. Pratt, Delaware Baptist missionary, as a memorial to her father
and father-in-law.
21. KANSAS CITY CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC (open 8:30 to 5
daily), 40 S. i8th St., although a branch of the Kansas City Conservatory
of Music, Kansas City, Mo., has its own board of trustees and is inde
pendently managed and financed. It is fully accredited with the National
Association of Schools of Music and offers a Bachelor of Music degree. In
1937, it had an enrollment of 586 and during the first semester furnished
talent for more than 150 outside programs. Josephine Jirak, winner of
the Sembrich fellowship and a radio soloist, is one of its alumni. It is
housed in a brick and frame building on a terraced corner lot.
22. AN OLD ELM TREE, SW. corner iyth St. and Grandview Blvd.,
an historic landmark, once shaded the camps of Indians. More than 200
years old, topped and broken, its trunk patched with cement, it has never
failed to put out leaves in the spring.
23. IRON DOOR SPRING, SW. corner nth St. and Ohio Ave., was
formerly walled and equipped with an iron door hence the name but
is now covered with a concrete slab. Situated in a small valley, it was one
of the springs about which the Indians camped to receive their annuities.
24. ST. MARGARET S HOSPITAL, Vermont Ave. between Harrison
and 8th Sts., oldest in the city, was founded by Father Anton Kuhls. The
first building was erected in 1887 at a cost of $20,000, more than $19,000
of which came from Father Kuhl s own pocket. The present three-story
building is closely bordered on three sides by a church and other buildings.
Owned and operated by the Sisters of St. Francis, it has accommodations
for 300 patients.
25. CUDAHY PACKING PLANT (open 9-11; 1-2 Tues.-Fri., guides),
SE. corner Kansas Ave. and Railroad St., is one of the "Big Four" in the
meat packing industry.
26. SWIFT & COMPANY PLANT (open 9-5; Tues.-Sat., guides),
corner Adams St. and Berger Ave., is also one of the "Big Four."
Both plants slaughter animals at the rate of 600 per hour, only 32
minutes being required from killing pens to refrigerated rooms.
27. COLGATE-PALMOLIVE-PEET COMPANY (open 10-12; 2-4
weekdays; guides, large parties by appointment), i4th to i7th Sts. on
Kansas Ave., manufactures soap products. The company imports vegetable
oils from China, Ceylon, the Philippine and Fiji Islands, Cuba, southern
Europe, and Africa, and perfumes from France, Switzerland, Bulgaria,
Italy, and North Africa.
28. PROCTOR & GAMBLE PLANT (visitors by appointment), Kansas
KANSAS CITY 219
Ave. between i9th St. and Kansas River, manufactures nationally known
soap products.
29. The OLD SMELTER TOWER (not open), 22nd St. and Metro
politan Ave., Argentine district, 185 feet high, is a relic of the interna
tionally known Kansas City Consolidated Smelting and Refining Company,
around which Argentine was built.
30. ANTHONY SAUER CASTLE (private), 945 Shawnee Rd., is a
three-story towered structure of Viennese design, built in 1871, on a 200-
acre estate, by Anthony Sauer, native of Vienna, from a fortune amassed
in pioneer freighting. All materials, except stone for the foundation, were
shipped by water from St. Louis. Marble for mantels was brought from
Italy, Vermont, and Kentucky. Stone lions at the front are the work of
an Italian sculptor. Crystal chandeliers were brought from Austria, lace
curtains from Brussels, and mirrors from Florence. A handsome vase
painted by Madame Le Brun, was another prized possession. A solid wal
nut stair with rosewood rail extends from tower to basement. The estate
has dwindled to three acres, but the house (occupied by a daughter of
Anthony Sauer) retains much of the original furniture.
31. MOUNT MARTY AND THE ROSED ALE ARCH, Seminary and
Springfield Sts., Rosedale district, designed in Ionic style by J. LeRoy
Marshall, was erected in 1923. It commemorated the organization on
Mount Marty, in 1917, of the ii7th Ammunition Train of the famous
"Rainbow Division," which served in France under Gen. Henri Gouraud,
and also honors Wyandotte County men who served in the War. Ground
was broken for the arch on July 30, 1923, General Gouraud taking part
in the ceremony.
32. UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HOSPITALS (Bell Memorial Hos
pital), SE. corner 39th Ave. and Rainbow Blvd., were founded in 1905
as the Bell Memorial by Dr. Simeon B. Bell, pioneer physician of Rose-
dale, who donated to the University of Kansas land and money for the
initial buildings. These buildings and grounds, now the School of Med
icine, are on the NE. corner of Seminary and Broad Sts. The present site
of the hospitals proper, 15 acres, was purchased in 1920 with contributions
from alumni and friends and appropriations by the city and State. The
buildings of brick and limestone, consist of the main hospital and admin
istration building, nurses home, and various wards. There are also several
temporary wooden structures known as "barracks."
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Wyandotte County Lake and Park, 12.4 m.; Delaware Burial Ground, 7.6 m.
(see Tour 3): Shawnee Mission, 1.4 m.; Home of Frederick Chouteau, 7.6 m.;
Home of Charles Bluejacket, 7.9 m. (see Tour 4).
Lawrence
Railroad Stations: 7th and New Jersey Sts. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.;
N. 2nd and Locust Sts. for Union Pacific R.R. and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific
Ry. ; 2nd and Maple Sts. for Kansas City, Kaw Valley & Western Ry.
Bus Stations: 638 Massachusetts St. for Southwestern Greyhound Lines and Inter
state Transit Lines (Union Pacific Stage) ; 1024 Massachusetts St. for Santa Fe
Trails System.
Airport: On US 40, 1.5 m. NE. of town; no scheduled service.
Taxis: Minimum fare 250.
Buses: Fare, 80.
Traffic Regulations: Usual; all plainly indicated.
Accommodations: Three hotels, five tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 746 Vermont St.
Radio Stations: WREN (1220 kc.) ; KFKU (1220 kc).
Motion Picture Houses : Four.
Athletics: University of Kansas Stadium, Mississippi St. between loth and i2th Sts.,
for school athletic events; Haskell Institute Stadium, 24th and Barker Sts., for
Indian school athletic events.
Swimming: Jayhawk Plunge, 6th and Michigan Sts.
Golf: Hill View Golf Course, 2 m. SW. of Lawrence on US 59, 9 holes, sand
greens, greens fee 2 50.
Annual Events: Kansas Relays in mid-April; Midwestern Band Festival, part of
Music Week in May, Midwestern high school band competition; Commencement
Exercises at University of Kansas, early in June; Christmas Vespers at University of
Kansas on Sunday before holiday vacation.
LAWRENCE (840 alt., 13,726 pop.), the principal educational center of
the State is divided by the Kansas River into two segments North and
South Lawrence. Home of the University of Kansas, Haskell Institute, and
Lawrence Business College, the city is also important as a shipping point
for potatoes, corn, wheat, and alfalfa grown in the rich valley land around
it, and as an industrial center.
South Lawrence or "Lawrence" as distinguished from "North Law
rence" clings to the north, east, and south slopes of a hill that forms the
divide between the valleys of the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers, and spreads
down into the level bottomland on the south and east. Massachusetts
Street, the city s main thoroughfare, for the most part skirting the foot of
the east slope of the hill, bisects the town, and extends from the river
southward through the business district to the outskirts.
The older residential districts on the first gentle slopes of the hill west
of Massachusetts Street, have an atmosphere of nineteenth century New
England with brick paved streets, low retaining walls, broad landscaped
lawns, and old mansions of brick and stone designed in the Mid- Victorian
style. The newer sections, on the western and southern limits, are as mod
ern as those in the average prosperous Kansas city.
220
LAWRENCE 221
North Lawrence is a semi-suburban community of modest homes and
small stores clustered about the Union Pacific Railroad yards and extending
along the two highways that enter the city from the north.
Little remains of the old Lawrence that played such an important part
in the history of Kansas during its struggle for statehood. The dusty streets
that resounded with guerrilla war cries and hoofbeats of the galloping
horses of William Quantrill, John Brown, and Charles Robinson are now
wide trafficways lined with business houses or comfortable dwellings. "The
Hill," overlooking the town and known as Mount Oread, is no longer
crowned by Free State fortifications but by the buildings of the University
of Kansas.
Modern homes, the property of local chapters of national college fra
ternities, stand where early settlers built log cabins; and streamlined cars,
usually borrowed from indulgent fathers back home, sweep down the
brick-paved hillsides. The fine old homes in Lawrence, which have escaped
being turned into student rooming houses, stand aloof behind protective
screens of shrubbery.
Completing the contrast is Haskcll Institute, a Federal Government high
school and junior college for Indians, where smartly-clad Indian co-eds
and white-collared braves seek to adjust themselves to a new culture, re
placing lacrosse and the old war cries with football and "Rah! Rah!
Haskell!"
Founded in 1854 by the New England Emigrant Aid Company and
named for Amos A. Lawrence of Boston, a prominent member of the
company, the town was originally planned as the capital of Kansas. Dr.
Charles Robinson was hired by the New England financiers to look after
their interests.
As the center of Free State activities the town was a hotbed of warfare
throughout the Territorial years. By March 1855 Lawrence was a growing
and prosperous town with 369 voters. Late in November of that year,
Charles W. Dow, a Free State man, was shot at Hickory Point, ten miles
south, by Franklin N. Coleman, a pro-slavery settler, and the enmity be
tween northern and southern settlers of Kansas and Missouri reached the
boiling point. This incident precipitated the Wakarusa War (see HIS
TORY).
Jacob Branson, with whom Dow lived, was rescued by Free State friends
after he was arrested by Samuel J. Jones, sheriff of Douglas County. Sher
iff Jones, a pro-slavery man, retaliated by tricking Territorial Governor
Wilson Shannon into sending out the militia (which then consisted largely
of Missourians who had come across their State Line to Kansas at the call
of Sheriff Jones) to put down the "rebellion" at Lawrence. This army
camped at Franklin about three miles east of Lawrence.
Finally after a week of siege the citizens of Lawrence sent a delegation
to the Governor to acquaint him with the true state of affairs. Incredulous,
the Governor went to Lawrence to examine the situation and, seeing that
he had acted too hastily, called the leaders of both sides together and drew
up a peace treaty.
On May 21, 1856, Sheriff Jones returned to Lawrence this time under
222 CITIES AND TOWNS
the pretense of serving some writs. Before he and his forces left, the
town s newspaper offices were dismantled, their presses broken to pieces,
and their type thrown in the Kansas River, several stores and residences
were robbed, and Dr. Robinson s home was burned. One man, a member
of the Jones band, was killed. Citizens of Lawrence declared that an Amer
ican flag, whipping in the breeze atop the Free State Hotel, knocked off a
brick that dropped on his head.
After five years of strife the Free State faction was triumphant. The
Wyandotte Constitution, under which the State was admitted to the Union,
was adopted October 4, 1859, and two months later an election of provi
sional State officers was held in which Dr. Charles Robinson was chosen
Governor of the new State. Robinson s fellow townsman and political ri
val, Gen. James H. Lane, was elected to the office of United States Senator
by the first State legislature, which convened in February 1861.
At daybreak on August 21, 1863, Lawrence citizens were aroused by the
sound of firing and the shouts of guerrilla raiders who swept down on the
town from the east, led by the notorious irregular, William Clarke Quan-
trill. After shooting down the Reverend S. S. Snyder in his barnyard, two
miles east of town, Quantrill s command, numbering 450 men, all mounted
and heavily armed, galloped toward the city. Opposed to them were only a
few unarmed recruits, twenty of whom were mowed down by the raiders.
The guerrilla band moved north on Rhode Island Street and was soon
racing down Massachusetts Street, Lawrence s main thoroughfare, toward
the Eldridge House. The guests of this inn were spared and allowed to go
to the City Hotel while the guerrillas sacked the Eldridge and set fire to
the building. The raiders then divided into squads of six or eight men and
scattered over town, slaying and burning. After four hours they withdrew,
leaving 150 dead and the major portion of the town in ruins. So futile
was the resistance offered by the surprised and terror-stricken citizens that
the Quantrill band retired with the loss of only one man.
Twice sacked and burned in the first decade of its existence, Lawrence
rose from its ashes like the fabled Phoenix, although progress was some
what halted during the Civil War. The Kansas Pacific, one of Kansas first
railroads, was built through the town in 1864 and with the increasing de
velopment of diversified agriculture in the fertile valleys on either side of
it, Lawrence became a prosperous trading and shipping point.
Less affected by synthetic booms than many Kansas cities, the growth
of the town has been gradual, and its economic structure has been estab
lished on a substantial foundation. Among the industries of the city are a
large flour mill that utilizes power from the Kansas River, an organ fac
tory, a paper box factory, a cannery, a wholesale seed house, a wholesale
grocery, and a poultry packing plant. Lawrence is also the site of one of
the largest fraternal insurance companies in the United States.
Paul Starrett, building and structural engineer, who made important con
tributions to the practical design of skyscrapers in Chicago and New York
City during the early twentieth century, was born (1866) in Lawrence.
He wrote Paul Starrett: Changing the Skyline, in 1938.
l^
GREEN HALL, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
22 4 CITIES AND TOWNS
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
The University of Kansas, on the summit of Mount Oread, overlooks
the broad Kansas River Valley on the north and the historic valley of the
Wakarusa on the south. The i6o-acre campus is noted for its purple lilac
hedge in the spring and for the scenic panorama of one of the richest sec
tions of the State. University buildings, for the most part, border a drive
that follows the crest of the ridge. Below the drive, on the north, is a
broad expanse of woodland and bluegrass that stretches down the slope to
the stadium and athletic field. Potter s Lake, a placid little pond, which in
the morning light reflects the great bulk of the Administration Building,
lies in a hollow near the western edge of the campus.
Because of its proximity to Kansas City, Mo., the University draws a
considerable portion of its student body from that city. The rhythmic
"Rockchalk, Jayhawk, K. U." battle cry of the Kansas "Jayhawks" is out
standing among college yells. The famous yell is a rallying cry for former
ICansans the world over. It was heard in the Philippine jungles where for
mer students fought as members of the 2oth Kansas Regiment, and on the
battlefields of France.
Freshmen and other new students pledge fidelity to K. U. and its ideals
in the symbolic torch ceremony which is usually held during the last week
in September. The ceremony begins on North College Hill, the site of the
first building, where the novitiates are told the story of the University s
beginning. Members of the Torch Society kindle a beacon fire and, as the
new students march down the hill to the stadium, a runner lights a torch
from the fire and carries it to the Rock Chalk Cairn where a second fire is
kindled. In the stadium the students gather about an altar of fire which
burns before an illuminated seal of the University. Representatives of the
freshman class are handed flaming torches by upperclassmen, symbolizing
the transference of culture and knowledge. After a brief address by the
chancellor, the students pledge allegiance by repeating a modified form of
the Athenian oath. In conclusion the chancellor places a freshman cap on
the head of a torch bearer, indicating that male members of the class must
wear the little caps until the end of the football season.
K. U. points to many illustrious names on its alumni roster, including
U. S. Senator William E. Borah of Idaho, Gov. Alf M. Landon, William
Allen White, and Gen. Frederick Funston.
On the athletic field K. U. has developed a number of Olympic en
trants, including Everett Bradley and Jim Bausch, decathlon contestants
and Glenn Cunningham, one of the greatest middle distance runners of
all time.
Amos A. Lawrence, who conceived the idea of the University, gave
notes and stocks to the amount of $12,000 to be held in trust for the pro
posed institution. It was first chartered in 1859 as Lawrence University,
but this attempt, like several others in the years before Kansas became a
State, ended in failure. After Kansas was admitted into the Union plans
were revived, and through the efforts of Dr. Charles Robinson, Lawrence
LAWRENCE 225
was chosen in 1861 as the seat of the State university. An act of the legis
lature the following year provided for its organization and in September
1866 the first classes were held in Old North College, the University s
first building, with an enrollment of 55. In 1938 the University (co
educational) had an enrollment of 5,200. The university has colleges of
arts and sciences, law, medicine, pharmacy, education, engineering and ar
chitecture, fine arts, business, and a graduate school. The chancellor is its
executive head.
Campus
S. from 12th St. on Oread Ave.
The MEMORIAL UNION BUILDING (open 7:30 a.m.-lO p.m.
weekdays), SW. corner 1 3th St. and Oread Ave. is of modern design con
structed of brick and limestone. Pond and Pond of Chicago were the archi
tects. Dedicated in 1927 to former students who lost their lives in the
World War, the building, in which are a cafeteria and lounge, is for the
use of campus visitors and extra-curricular activities of students. Murals
in the lounge are the work of WPA artists of the Federal Art Project.
The DYCHE MUSEUM (closed for repairs 1938), NW. corner i4th
St. and Oread Ave., was built in the early 1900*5 to house the exten
sive natural history collection of the late Prof. L. L. Dyche. Constructed
of native limestone with white limestone trim and ornamentations of white
limestone and brick, the structure is of modified Romanesque style and is
adorned with naturalistic carvings of birds and beasts, the work of an
Italian stone cutter. Its arched portal, approached by a broad flight of
steps, is modeled after that of St. Trophime in Aries in southern France.
The building was designed by Root & Seimans of Kansas City, Mo.
The THAYER MUSEUM OF ART (open 10-3 weekdays; 2-5 Sun.
and holidays), NE. corner i4th St. and Oread Ave., served as the
university library from 1894 to 1924. After the completion of the new
Watson Library it was remodeled to house the $150,000 art collection,
donated to the University by Mrs. Sally C. Thayer of Kansas City, Mo.,
as a memorial to her husband, the late W. D. Thayer, Kansas City mer
chant. Constructed of red sandstone, the three floors of the building are
utilized to exhibit the collection. In the basement is a display of Indian
blankets, baskets, and pottery. The first floor contains a collection of rare
volumes, histories of art, reference books on arts and crafts, and a col
lection of 500 pieces of English porcelain and eighteenth century English
226 CITIES AND TOWNS
glassware. Another collection includes a large exhibit of textiles from
many nations, a collection of coins, Japanese lacquer and silverware, and
Chinese tapestries. In the central gallery of the second floor is a collection
of Japanese prints and Chinese paintings, and in a smaller room is an
exhibit of American handicraft including old furniture, coverlets, hooked
rugs, and samplers.
At 14th St., Oread Ave. becomes Campus Drive; R. on Campus Drive.
GREEN HALL (R) houses the School of Law. It is a buff colored
brick structure with huge stone columns that form a wide front portico
approached by a broad flight of stone steps.
In front of the building is a STATUE OF "UNCLE JIMMY" GREEN, dean
of the School of Law from 1879 to I 9 I 9- The work of the late Daniel
Chester French of Stockbridge, Mass., the bronze statue is set on a granite
base and represents the dean standing with one of his students.
FRASER HALL (L), the oldest building on the campus, is a gaunt
four- story structure of native limestone completed in 1872. Its great bulk
is topped with twin towers that have almost flat tops and are encircled by
iron railings.
On the second floor is the WILCOX MUSEUM (open 8-5 weekdays),
named for Prof. A. M. Wilcox, its founder, who was a professor of Greek
for 43 years. It contains facsimile reproductions of various objects of
antiquity, a collection of Greek and Roman coins, vases, lamps, articles of
dress, specimens of Roman glass, and full-sized plaster casts of the works
of noted Greek sculptors.
The PIONEER STATUE, E. of the entrance of Fraser Hall, is a
bronze figure of a pioneer with spade in hand, the work of Frederick C.
Hibbard of Kansas City, and a gift of Dr. Simeon D. Bell. A marker com
memorates the site of the barracks and trenches of 1864, dug in prepara
tion for Price s raid (see HISTORY).
The WATSON LIBRARY (open 7:30 a.m.-lO p.m. weekdays),
Campus Drive, (L) west of Fraser Hall, is a three-story Bedford lime
stone structure, Collegiate Gothic in style and designed by Ray M. Gam
ble, State architect. Completed in 1924, it contains about 291,900 volumes.
It was named for Carrie M. Watson, librarian from 1887 until 1921.
HA WORTH HALL (open 8-5 weekdays), Campus Drive (L), is a
two-story native stone structure with shops for students of mining in the
rear. It contains the PALEONTOLOGY MUSEUM with a large collection of
fossils, most of which came from chalk beds along the Smoky Hill River.
There is also a GEOLOGICAL MUSEUM including specimens of igneous
and sedimentary rocks, crystals, ores, and building stone.
The ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, (R) across the Drive from
Haworth Hall, is of Italian Renaissance design and constructed of brick
faced with yellow terra cotta. It is the largest building on the cam
pus, and contains the BRYNWOOD COLLECTION of paintings (open 8-5
weekdays), loaned to the University by Chester Woodward, Topeka
alumnus.
SNOW HALL, Campus Drive (R) just west of the Administration
LAWRENCE 22y
Building, is Collegiate Gothic in design with walls of Bedford lime
stone. It was completed in 1929 and houses the natural science depart
ments, some departments of the School of Medicine, and the FRANCIS
HUNTINGTON SNOW ENTOMOLOGICAL MUSEUM (open 8-5 weekdays),
considered one of the finest insect collections in the United States.
Campus Drive swings N. at the W. end of campus becoming West Cam
pus Rd.; R. on llth St.
MEMORIAL STADIUM (open for athletic events only), main en
trance at nth and Alabama Sts., a concrete horseshoe, is the scene of
the University of Kansas football games, the Kansas Relays, and the com
mencement exercises. Completed in 1927, it has a seating capacity of
38,000.
The ROCK CHALK CAIRN, approximately 100 yards south of the
stadium on the slope of a hill, is a pile of historic stones including
remnants of North College and of old Snow Hall.
NORTH COLLEGE HILL, nth St., N. end of Mount Oread, is a
plateau-like elevation bounded by loth, Ohio, and Indiana Sts. Here Old
North College, the first building, was erected in 1865. It was torn down
in 1923 and replaced by CORBIN HALL, a three-story building of brick
and stucco, housing a women s dormitory.
The hill is the scene of noisy pre-game football rallies climaxed by the
pre-Thanksgiving game ceremony. On the night before the annual Thanks
giving game with the University of Missouri, loyal followers of the Kansas
Jayhawks gather around a crackling bonfire and join in the ceremony of
burning the Missouri Tiger in effigy.
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
The POWER DAM, just east of the bridge that spans the river at
Massachusetts St., furnishes power for many of Lawrence s industries. It
is the only dam on the Kansas River.
In ROBINSON PARK, overlooking the river at 6th and Massa
chusetts Sts. is the OLD SETTLERS MONUMENT, a giant boulder brought
to Lawrence by the Santa Fe Railway Co. from the mouth of Shunganunga
Creek near Tecumseh. On it is a bronze plaque bearing the names of the
first settlers who arrived in 1854.
The SITE OF THE FIRST METHODIST CHURCH, 724 Vermont
St., is indicated by a stone marker bearing the inscription: "Site of
First Methodist Church in Lawrence. Bought July 6, 1855. Building
erected 1857. Used as a morgue, August 21, 1863." The last date is that
of Quantrill s raid.
The CARNEGIE LIBRARY (open 10-8:30 weekdays; July and
Aug. 10-12 a.m., 6-8:30 p.m.), NW. corner 9th and Vermont Sts., was
originally a one-story building constructed of tan brick, completed in
1904. A $35,000 addition was added in 1937 as a PWA project. The
library contains 27,000 volumes.
228 CITIES AND TOWNS
The PLYMOUTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 923 Vermont
St., a red brick structure with a modern community house on the south,
houses the oldest church organization in Kansas. On October i, 1854, the
Reverend S. Y. Lum delivered the first sermon in Lawrence. The congre
gation was organized two weeks later with seven members. Meetings
were held in the Pioneer Hotel.
"A few rough boards were brought for seats," wrote Mrs. Sara Robin
son, "and with singing by several good voices among the pioneers the
usual church services were held. The people then, as on many succeeding
Sabbaths, were gathered together by the ringing of a large dinner bell."
SOUTH PARK, between nth and i3th Sts., and divided by Massa
chusetts St., has an area of 12.8 acres. The eastern section of the park is
attractively landscaped and contains a bandstand where public concerts
are given. Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a candidate for Vice President, spoke
from this bandstand in September 1920.
The SITE OF THE MASSACRE OF RECRUITS, near the sidewalk
at 935 New Hampshire St., is indicated by a stone marker. It was near
this spot that Quantrill s guerrillas shot down twenty unarmed boys dur
ing the raid of August 21, 1863.
The SITE OF THE ROBINSON HOME, 1115 Louisiana St., is
commemorated by a granite marker. Dr. Charles Robinson built a home
here soon after his arrival in 1854. It was burned by Sheriff Jones raiders
May 21, 1856.
The JOHN SPEER HOME, 1024 Maryland St., used as an imple
ment shed and in a state of dilapidation, was built by one of the town s
first settlers. In front of this house Larkin M. Skaggs, the only member
of Quantrill s band who lost his life during the raid, was killed by White
Turkey, a Delaware Indian.
HASKELL INSTITUTE (campus open at all hours; to visit classes
apply superintendent), 23rd St. and Barker Ave., is the largest Indian
school in the United States. Haskell was opened in 1884 as one of three
non-reservation boarding schools provided by an Act of Congress in
1882. The purpose of the institution, according to its founders, was "to
provide an opportunity for the American Indian to acquire an education
which would fit him for useful citizenship." Land for the original campus
of 280 acres was donated by the city of Lawrence. The school was known
as the Indian Training School of Lawrence until 1890 when it was named
for Congressman Dudley C. Haskell of Kansas who was influential in lo
cating it in the State.
This initial attempt to educate the Indian in the ways of the white man
was regarded as a radical innovation, especially by the considerable group
of people in the western States who still adhered to the belief, fostered by
years of bloody warfare, that "the only good Indian was a dead Indian."
Classes opened with twenty-two students and a faculty of three mem
bers. While enrollment was unrestricted as to age, tribe, or residence, the
first enrollees were younger children from the reservations whose parents
felt compelled to send their boys and girls to Lawrence to "learn the white
man s ways." Consequently the first academic courses were elementary and
LAWRENCE 229
many of the children had to be taught to speak English as well as to read
and write.
The first superintendent was Dr. James Marvin, who had lately retired
as chancellor of the University of Kansas. Doctor Marvin held office for
one year and was replaced by Col. Arthur Grahouski, a retired Army
officer who instituted a rule of strict military discipline. Colonel Gra-
bouski was succeeded by former Gov. Charles Robinson.
Enrollment increased rapidly and at the end of the second year had
reached 200, representing 31 tribes. As older students began to enroll
courses in home economics for the girls and handicraft and agriculture for
the boys were developed. By 1895 new academic courses had given the
school a rating equal to that of a standard elementary school and junior
hii^h school.
As the older Indian boys came in increasing numbers Haskell began a
program of organized athletics. In competitive sports, especially football,
the Indians displayed a remarkable skill. As the fame of Haskell elevens
spread, the Braves were invited to compete with some of the larger col
leges and universities in the Missouri Valley area. In later years they
played in every section of the country.
Although Haskell has never produced an athlete who equalled Car
lisle s Jim Thorpe, many of its gridiron heroes have received national or
sectional recognition. The list includes Bill Bain, the Hauser brothers,
Chauncey Archiquette, John Levi, Buster Charles, and Louis "Little Rab
bit" Weller. Pete Hauser, who played on a Haskell team that defeated the
Universities of Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri, was one of Walter
Camp s Ail-American selections in the early 1900*5. John Levi, a giant
Arapahoe, starred in the early 1920*5 and was recognized as one of the
finest fullbacks of his generation. The Little Rabbit, an eel-like Caddo
halfback, thrilled Kansas football crowds from 1928 to 1931 with his
sensational runs.
In 1931 Haskell s enrollment reached its peak of 1,240. Two years later
the Reverend Henry Roe Cloud, a full-blood Winnebago, was appointed
superintendent, the only Indian who ever held the office. He was suc
ceeded in 1935 by Russell M. Kelley, the present (1938) institutional
head.
In 1934 a new Indian educational policy resulted in the elimination of
the agricultural courses and the curtailment of enrollment. The new plans
originally provided for the abandonment of non-reservation schools, but
because of a storm of protest Haskell was permitted to continue. Haskell
now offers a four-year high school course and a two-year postgraduate
commercial course. Enrollment is limited to students from Kansas, Iowa,
Montana (except the Flathead Reservation), North Dakota, South Dakota,
North Carolina, Michigan, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wyo
ming. In 1938 there were approximately 600 students. Applicants who are
of less than one-fourth Indian blood are not accepted.
Except for their racial characteristics Haskell students look very much
like their neighbors at the University. Indian co-eds keep pace with the
230 CITIES AND TOWNS
current styles in campus wear, and boys dress in the casual garb affected
by college men throughout the country.
A tour of the campus may be made by following a circular tree-lined
drive from the Barker Street entrance. The drive passes the Administra
tion Building, a one-story frame building of bungalow-type; Pocahontas
Hall and Winona Hall, girls dormitories; Sacajawia Hall, Home Eco
nomics Building. Keokuk Hall and Osceola Hall, now used as boys
dormitories, are the oldest buildings on the campus. Both were built in
1884 and are of local limestone construction, four stories high and of the
institutional-type of architecture. Other buildings in the following order
are : Sequoia Hall, the Academic Building ; Tecumseh Hall, the boys gym
nasium; Hiawatha Hall, the girls gymnasium; the Auditorium; Pontiac
Hall, the vocational building; and Powhatan Hall, which contains apart
ments for teachers. The buildings are predominantly of the institutional-
type, ranging from two to four stories in height and are of brick and local
limestone construction. Left from the entrance is the STADIUM, with a
seating capacity of 17,000, donated to the Institute by Indians in appre
ciation of the work done for Indian youth. It was dedicated November
n, 1926.
The REUTER ORGAN FACTORY (open 8-5 weekdays), 6th and
New Hampshire Sts., manufactures custom-built pipe organs and is the
only factory of its kind between the Mississippi River and the Pacific
Coast. The company was organized at Trenton, 111., in 1917 and moved
to Lawrence three years later. The plant is housed in a four-story, factory-
type building of brick. Normal production varies from 50 to 60 organs
a year and the company employs approximately 45 persons.
The KAW VALLEY CANNING PLANT (open 8-5 weekdays), E.
loth and Maryland Sts., is a three-story, factory-type building of brick.
The factory was established in 1885 by the late Jabez Watkins. In 1930 it
was leased to the Columbus Foods Corp. and has since operated under
their control. Providing a cash market for truck farmers in the Kaw Valley
areas near Lawrence, the cannery operates continuously from April, when
the spinach crop is harvested, until late November, when the last of the
pumpkin crop is ready for canning. Large quantities of peas, sweet corn,
tomatoes, and green beans also are canned. An average of 75 persons are
employed during the season. Since 1930 the average annual output has
been 75 carloads.
The ELDRIDGE HOTEL, SW. corner 7th and Massachusetts Sts.,
a five-story brick structure of modern design erected in 1925 is the fourth
hotel on this site. The Free State Hotel, the first on the townsite, was
burned by Sheriff Jones raiders, May 21, 1856. In 1863 Col. S. W. El-
dridge built another hotel on the corner, but this building was burned by
Quantrill s men a few months after its completion. Before the end of the
year, Colonel Eldridge began the construction of a third building that
occupied the site until it was razed in 1924 to be replaced by the new
Eldridge.
TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 1009 Vermont St., now used as a
parish house, is the oldest church building in Kansas. It is English Gothic
LAWRENCE 23!
in design, constructed of native limestone, and was erected in 1858. The
present church, just north of the old building, is also of native stone and
of similar design. It was completed in 1871 and has been remodeled in
recent years.
The SITE OF THE OLD SNYDER HOME, approximately 400 yards
south of the intersection of i9th and Haskcll Stv, where the Reverend
S. S. Snyder of the United Brethren Church was killed by Quantrill s
kind as they entered Lawrence, is marked by a WELL.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
I.ccompton, 72.2 m. (see Tour 3); Oak Hill Cemetery, 1.1 m.: Franklin Ceme
tery, 2.4 m.; Pioneer Cemetery, 3.4 m.; Hole in the Rock, 16.9 m. (see Tour 12).
Railroad Stations: Main and Delaware Sts. for Missouri Pacific R.R., Union Pacific
R.R., and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry.; 8th and Shawnee Sts. for Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. ; 5th and Choctaw Sts. for Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
R.R. ; Choctaw St. and the Missouri River for Chicago Great Western R.R.
Bus Stations: 303 Delaware St. for Missouri Pacific Trailways; 230 Delaware St.
for interurban to Kansas City; National Hotel, NE. corner 4th and Cherokee Sts.
for Leavenworth-Kansas City Bus Line.
Airport: Fort Leavenworth Airport, 3-9 m. N. of business section on US 73,
emergency service for private planes.
Taxis: Minimum fare, io0.
City Buses: Fare 80 to all parts of city and to Federal Penitentiary and Fort Leaven-
worth.
Traffic Regulations: Two-hour parking in business section from 8 to 6.
Accommodations: Three hotels; cottages for tourists.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 516 Delaware St.
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Abdallah Shrine Temple, 511 Shawnee St.,
Shrine circuses, concerts, occasional road shows. Three motion picture houses.
Swimming: City park pool, i3th and Shawnee Sts., and pool for Negroes, 2nd and
Kiowa Sts., adults 250, children io0.
Golf: Shrine Park, two blocks S. of city limits on Maple Ave. 9 holes, greens fee
250; Greenwood Country Club, 4 m. SW. on State 92, 9 holes, greens fee 250.
Riding: Fort Leavenworth, 2.5 m. N. on State 92, open only to members of fort
riding class, class fee $10 monthly.
Annual Events: Competitive R.O.T.C. drill April or May; horse show May and
Oct.; steeplechases, polo games, and air shows at irregular intervals.
LEAVENWORTH (760 alt., 17,466 pop.), on the west bank of the
Missouri River, spreads out over high bluffs and rolling hills, overlooking
the Big Muddy, its green "bottoms," and adjacent farm lands. The busi
ness district is on fairly level ground in the narrow valley of Three Mile
Creek, a shallow stream which flows between steep banks and makes a
natural line of demarcation between downtown Leavenworth and the
south residential district.
Bounded by the river on the east and by the military reservation of Fort
Leavenworth on the north, the city s growth from the retail and industrial
district has been largely to the south and west. There are a number of
modern homes among the old Victorian mansions that line its well- shaded
streets, but the architecture of the city is predominantly that of the
eighties and nineties.
Fort Leavenworth, known as "the mother-in-law of the Army" because
of the more than 200 Leavenworth girls who have married army officers,
is just beyond the city limits two and a half miles northwest of the busi-
232
COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF SCHOOL, FORT LEAVENWORTH
ness district. It consists of an 8,ooo-acre reservation with appropriate
residences and administrative buildings, and it also contains the Federal
Penitentiary and the United States Prison Annex, formerly the Army dis
ciplinary barracks.
The Penitentiary, locally calfcd the "Pen," a towering city of gray
stone and red brick, has its entrance at Thirteenth and Metropolitan
Streets, 1.9 miles from the business section. Escapes from its impregnable
walls are rare, but there have been some notable exceptions. On Novem
ber 7, 1901, before the institution was completed, 26 inmates marched
away in a fusillade of bullets. On April 20, 1910, six convicts forced an
engineer to crash a locomotive through the heavy prison gates; and on
December u, 1931, seven men, armed with revolvers smuggled to them
in a barrel of shoe polish and using Warden Thomas B. White, his secre
tary, and a guard as shields, made a break for freedom. In each case, how
ever, liberty was of short duration.
Catholic and Protestant churches are well supported and constitute a
potent civic force. Residents at the fort have their own cliques and social
circles, although women in riding habit and men in Army khaki are fa
miliar figures in the city, particularly during the summer encampments.
Prison guards make their homes in Leavenworth and occasionally the fam
ilies of convicts establish temporary residence.
Although the manufacture of furniture predominates, there are various
other industries whose production includes structural steel, cotton gloves,
flour, stoves and ranges, mine and mill machinery, meat packing products,
and coal. Diversified farming, truck gardening, and livestock raising are
234 CITIES AND TOWNS
practiced in the vicinity, and a luscious variety of strawberry the Aroma
developed by local fruitgrowers, has acquired a wide market.
The earliest known inhabitants of Leavenworth County were the Kansa
Indians, a migratory tribe, followed by the Delaware and the Kickapoo.
Lewis and Clark passed the townsite July 2, 1804, camped to the north,
and left a description of the country in their journals. Seventeen years
later trade with Santa Fe was initiated, and in 1827 Col. Henry H. Leaven-
worth erected Cantonment Leavenworth now Fort Leavenworth to pro
tect traffic on the Santa Fe Trail. The first white settlers in the county and
State were the farmers at the cantonment and missionaries employed
among the immigrant tribes a few years later.
Leavenworth, the town, had its origin at a meeting of pro-slavers in
Weston, Mo., a few days after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill
(May 30, 1854). Ambitious men in Missouri coveted the rich lands in
Kansas, and David R. Atchison, proponent of slavery, advised his friends
in Weston to go over and help themselves which they did even before
the Territory was established. Although the townsite was on the Delaware
Trust Lands and provisions of the treaty precluded their settlement until
they were surveyed and sold to the highest bidder, Missourians surged
across the border and preempted the choice locations. Some brought fam
ilies and built crude huts in order to present the appearance of bona fide
settlers. Most of the claims were speculative, but by the end of June 1854
there was scarcely an acre not claimed in this fashion.
The town company, the first in Kansas Territory, was organized June
13, 1854; the 320 acres embraced in the joint claim were surveyed, plat
ted and divided into shares; and "New Town," as it was at first locally
known, was created. The name, Douglas, in honor of Stephen A. Douglas
of Illinois, was suggested and generally favored; but H. Miles Moore, a
townsite proprietor, argued that the sale of lots would be stimulated by
leading outsiders to confuse the city with the military post, which was in
an exceedingly desirable situation, and "Leavenworth" was adopted.
The city was progressing smoothly when the Delaware Indians, incited
by settlers from the rival town of Atchison, sent a formal complaint to
Washington, protesting against the invasion of their lands, and an order
to drive off all squatters was issued. It was realized then that the dash
into Kansas was illegal, but by agreeing to pay a price fixed by the Gov
ernment, the squatters contrived to appease the Indians and were allowed
to remain, although the final sale of the land was not consummated until
February, 1857.
Meanwhile, plans went ahead for the town s advancement. On Septem
ber 15, 1854, the Kansas Herald, first English newspaper in the Territory,
was published under a tree on the town s levee. On October 9 the first
sale of town lots was held, and the following summer by an act of the
legislature convened July 20, 1855 Leavenworth became the first incor
porated town in Kansas Territory.
Early elections of the community were notoriously corrupt. Residents
of Weston and other points in Missouri floated down the Missouri on
steamboats to stuff ballot boxes with fraudulent votes. The pro-slavery
LEAVENWORTH 235
and Free State parties nominated candidates for the Territorial council and
assembly, and a canvass made before the first election (March 30, 1855)
revealed the district as capable of polling 305 votes. But the election in
spectors accepted 964 "legitimate" votes and allowed the pro-slavery can
didates an overwhelming majority.
Nor was it wise to protest the frauds. William Phillips, a young Free
State lawyer, tried it and was advised to leave the Territory. When he
refused, he was stripped to the waist, tarred and feathered, and escorted
to Weston, Mo., where he was ridden on a rail to the accompaniment of
clanging bells and pans, and eventually placed on a slave block and auc
tioned off for one cent by an old Negro.
But despite political violence, Leavenworth grew. Its proximity to the
fort gave it military protection and made it the commercial terminus for
the roads radiating from the fort into the Territory. Business firms were
attracted. In the fall of 1854 Murphy and Scruggs established a sawmill.
By the following February the Leavenworth Hotel had been erected; a
tailor, shoemaker, and barber had hung out their signs; and two black
smith and three carpenter shops were established. In the spring of 1856
J. L. Abernathy, with the slender capital of $600 began the Abernathy
Furniture Company; the following fall Majors Russell and Waddell (see
TRANSPORTATION) made it headquarters for their vast transportation
system.
Employing thousands of men and oxen and hundreds of wagons, this
firm did more for the development of the town than several decades of
average increase. The first year it expended more than $15,000 for stores,
and for blacksmith, wagon and repair shops, thereby attracting other
traders. Outfitters, formerly located at Independence, Westport, Weston,
and St. Joseph, Missouri, now moved to Leavenworth as the new base of
supply for the West and Southwest. And to all this exchange was added
the $600,000 annually spent by the fort in salaries and for supplies.
On March 25, 1858, after two previous attempts at Lecompton and
Topeka a constitutional convention assembled in Melodcon Hall at
Leavenworth and framed the Leavenworth Constitution. This document
was patterned after the Topeka Constitution and was sent to Congress
while that body was debating the Lecompton Constitution. One of its
provisions recognized the Negro and gave him the right to the ballot; an
other provided that the question of universal suffrage be submitted to a
vote. Congress never took action on this constitution but its purpose was
accomplished by the eventual defeat of the Lecompton Constitution.
Four years after its founding, July 15, 1858, Leavenworth suffered a
fire in which 32 stores and $200,000 worth of property were destroyed.
Yet, by 1861, with a population of nearly 8,000, it was the largest city in
the newly formed State and a money center equal in importance to cities
of five times its size. It boasted eight banks and five newspapers, shops,
stores, and manufacturing plants. It had telegraphic connections with the
East and was looking forward to railroads. It had an organized board of
education and a school system.
Meanwhile the political sentiments of the community had shifted
236 CITIES AND TOWNS
strongly to the North and throughout the struggle of the Civil War Leav-
enworth was loyal, furnishing eighteen companies for defense of the
Union. On April 18, 1861, when a river steamer flying a Confederate
flag docked at the levee, a crowd assembled with "Old Kickapoo," a
battle-scarred cannon, and ordered the flag lowered. Then the mob went
aboard and forced the skipper to raise the American standard.
Leavenworth s importance was recognized in the development of rail
roads, and one of the first charters granted by the Territorial legislature
was to the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western (afterwards the Eastern
Division of the Union Pacific) in 1855. As the starting point for western
travel, Leavenworth was selected for the eastern terminus. But after sur
veying, grading, and assembling supplies, difficulties arose; and the ter
minus was moved to Wyandotte in the summer of 1863. This was a serious
setback, duplicated in 1879 when a branch line of the Hannibal and St.
Joseph from Cameron, Mo., resisted all Leavenworth s efforts and selected
Kansas City, Mo., as its point of connection. These losses to Leavenworth
gave Kansas City the advantage which resulted in its ultimate ascendancy ;
although until 1880 Leavenworth, with more than 20,000 people, was
still the largest city in Kansas, humming with trade and manufacture.
Since 1900, however, it has fallen to sixth place.
The city has many manufacturing interests, wholesale and retail estab
lishments, and is serviced by one main and five branch line railroads.
POINTS OF INTEREST
PLANTERS HOUSE (private), NE. corner Shawnee and Main Sts.,
now operated as an apartment house, is a four-story building of red brick,
once a popular hostelry of the West. It was opened in 1856 by indignant
pro-slavery men who heartily disapproved of the Free State policies of the
old Leavenworth Hotel, then on the northwest corner of Main and Dela
ware Streets.
Although it catered to guests of pro-slavery sentiment, one tolerant per
son proposed that Free Soilers who paid their bills and deported them
selves as gentlemen should be suffered admittance. The barroom was
patronized by enemy politicians, so the management kept one pro-slavery
and one abolitionist bartender on duty at all times.
The hotel was host to many famous guests, including Abraham Lin
coln, who delivered a campaign speech December 3, 1859, from the steps
of Stockton Hall; Stephen A. Douglas, who spoke from the balcony of
the Planters ; and Horace Greeley. It was the temporary abode of Gen.
William T. Sherman, who, during a brief period of law practice in Leav
enworth, is said to have lost the only case he tried.
A kidnapping occurred January 13, 1859, at the Planters . Temporarily
thwarted in an attempt to arrest Charley Fisher, a Negro employee, on the
charge that he was a fugitive slave, a deputy United States marshal ob
tained a ladder, stuck his head in a window and threatened to blow out
the landlord s brains. This persuaded the landlord. Assisted by two other
men, the marshal handcuffed Fisher and took him across the river into
Missouri. But while his captors enjoyed a brief siesta, the Negro escaped
LEAVENWORTH 237
ind filed off his shackles. His abductors were arrested, tried, and found
guilty of kidnapping a slave. However, no existing law provided punish
ment for such an offense and they were released.
The SITE OF STOCKTON HALL, 401 Delaware St., now occu
pied by the Leavenworth National Bank, was the scene of Lincoln s cam
paign speech December 3, 1859, in which he attacked the Stephen A.
Douglas theory of State sovereignty. Stockton Hall was a privately-owned
auditorium arranged for theatrical presentations and public gatherings.
One of the most significant meetings in State history was held here in the
summer of 1858 for the organization of the Democratic party in Kansas.
It was destroyed by fire January 25, 1864.
The NATIONAL HOTEL, NE. corner 4th and Cherokee Sts., was
visited by Carry Nation during her bar-wrecking campaign of the 1900 $,
but the pleasant smile of Jesus Mella, the affable host, dissuaded her from
the intention. During her visit curious citizens pressed their noses against
windows and crowded through the doors to view the famous hatchet-
wielder. Many retired to the bar for drinks and, it is reported, provided
the saloon a record for one day s business that remained unchallenged.
The LEAVENWORTH COUNTY COURTHOUSE (open 8-5, week-
days), Walnut St., between 3rd and 4th Sts., a stone building, was
erected upon the ruins of its predecessor, which was almost completely
destroyed by fire in 1911. The well-kept grounds, with flower beds and
venerable trees, provide an attractive setting, particularly in the spring
and summer.
The FORMER HOME OF THOMAS CARNEY (private), 411 Wal
nut St., now used as the Presbyterian manse, is a two-story, ten-room
house of stucco-covered brick, with a wide porch on two sides. Started in
1855 by Jeremiah Clark, the property and building were later purchased
by Governor Carney, second Governor of Kansas, who completed the
house and built a wall around the entire block. Part of this wall remains.
The PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 9-9 daily; closed 5//;;. during sum
mer), SE. corner 5th and Walnut Sts., a building of red brick with arched
windows, was occupied in 1902 and financed by an endowment from An
drew Carnegie. It has approximately 39,500 volumes, but contains no
special collections.
The J. C LYSLE MILLING PLANT (open 10-12 and 1:30-4, Mon.-
Fri.), 512 Choctaw St., houses one of the oldest flour mills in Kansas,
the company being founded in the early iSyo s. During the late i88o s
the company introduced Kansas hard wheat flour to Europe and, for a
number of years, was the largest exporter of Kansas flour to markets of
the United Kingdom.
By a series of automatic processes, in which the wheat travels more than
a mile to the packing room, the grain is separated from foreign matter by
screening, scoured to remove residual dirt, dampened, and ground into
flour and feed.
The Y.W.C.A., 529 Delaware St., contains a relic of Lincoln s visit.
In a bookcase on the second floor is a Wedgwood pitcher with a yel
lowed paper pasted to its bottom. A faded inscription reads:
238 CITIES AND TOWNS
"From this pitcher Mr. A. Lincoln drank a glass of beer, when a guest
of my father, Mark W. Delahay, in 1859, at Leavenworth, Kansas, Kiowa
St., near 3rd St. M.E.D."
A THREE- WHEELED MOTOR CAR is on display at the Bayer
Brothers Carriage & Motor Works (open by appointment), 725 Shawnee
St. Made in 1905, this was one of four motor cars designed and manu
factured by Henry Bayer and Charles Doyle, an expert though bibulous
mechanic of Cleveland, Ohio. The three-wheeled vehicle, propelled by
a two-cylinder motor, has a gasoline tank under the seat, and a long iron
rod on the right side, which serves as a steering device. Three pedals op
erate the clutch, brake, and emergency brake.
This car is in running condition and, according to the Bayer family, an
offer from Henry Ford of $1,000 and a new Ford sedan has been refused.
The ABERNATHY FURNITURE PLANT (open by appointment),
205 Miami St., covers 2,500 square feet of space. The company was
established in 1856 and is one of the oldest enterprises in Leaven-
worth. Founded by J. L. Abernathy it is now the largest industry in the
city occupying two plants, and employing some 400 men the year round
in the manufacture of a general line of household, school, and office
furniture, as well as mattresses and other household supplies most of
which are distributed in the western part of the United States.
MELLA S CASTLE, NE. corner 6th and Shawnee Sts., the most in
congruous building in Leavenworth, was constructed in the i88o s, de
signed in the manner of an Italian villa, and named Terrace des Italiens.
The vine-covered stone building was erected by the widow of Dr. J. W.
Brock, who had served in the Union army. It has been transformed into a
restaurant and night club.
The ABDALLAH SHRINE TEMPLE (open by permission), 509-
511 Shawnee St., the "Mother Temple" of Kansas, was chartered March
28, 1887. The original building, which has a stucco front and two
sphinxes between the doorways, has been augmented by another struc
ture of brick, trimmed in white stone. The temple s auditorium, with a
seating capacity of 1,500, is the largest in Leavenworth.
The CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, 711-
715 N. 5th St., once one of the largest and most imposing churches
west of the Mississippi, was started in 1864 and dedicated December 8,
1868.
Designed in the Romanesque style, the building served the first organ
ized parish in the Territory and is still the cathedral of the Leavenworth
Diocese. The paintings by Leon Pomrade on the ceiling and walls remain
remarkably clear.
Bishop Meige was appointed in 1850 t>y Pope Pius IX as vicar apos
tolic of the Indian Territory, but it was not until May 15, 1855, that he
visited Leavenworth, celebrated Mass, and decided upon the town as his
permanent residence.
The PARKER AMUSEMENT PLANT (open by appointment), 1000
S. 4th St., has manufactured and shipped merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels,
and other carnival amusement devices to remote parts of the world, but
LEAVENWORTH 239
now engages principally in repair work on the merry-go-rounds it has
leased or sold.
Moved from Abilene, Kans., in 1910 by C. W. Parker, one of the
founders, the factory soon won the appellation, the "Wooden Horse
Ranch." According to Paul Parker, a son, the Sultan of Java came here in
1916 and ordered a merry-go-round complete with 48 horses. The Sultan,
it developed, had 48 wives, and his subtlety was employed to prevent a
jealous uprising in his harem. He paid $16,000 for the merry-go-round
and during its construction stayed at the Parker home. After his return to
|ava he sent Mrs. C. W. Parker a large mirror framed with ivory, still in
the family s possession.
At EVERGREEN SANITARIUM (private), first block S. of the
city limits on Maple Ave., a rambling two-story stucco building with a
flat roof, Carry Nation spent her last days. She died there June 2, 1911.
The Evergreen Sanitarium has been discontinued and the building is now
used as a private institution known as the Stoddard Sanitarium.
PILOT KNOB, a long wooded ridge in SW. Leavenworth, pro
vides a commanding view of the surrounding country. The highest point
in Leavenworth, Pilot Knob possessed early-day significance as a trail
marker. A large pile of stone on the southern point was one of several
between Leavenworth and a ford over the Kansas River at Lawrence, serv
ing as guides for the Sac and the Fox, the Miami, and other Kansas tribes
on their excursions to Fort Leavenworth and Weston, Mo.
An ancient cemetery on the hill has been almost obliterated. Isaac Cody,
father of William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody, who died October 12, 1857,
was one of the first buried there. Buffalo Bill s mother died six years later
and was interred beside her husband. Many unidentified skeletons, how
ever, have been removed to other cemeteries.
The HOME RIVERSIDE COAL MINE (open by appointment, usually
at night), SE. corner 2nd and Maple Sts. produces bituminous coal
and is tunneled under the Missouri River. The shaft is 750 feet deep.
Before the mine was equipped with electricity, burros pulled the coal cars.
With the coming of electricity the donkeys were removed, but it was nec
essary to expose them to the light gradually in order to prevent blindness.
FORT LEAVENWORTH (grounds open, buildings by permission),
Metropolitan and Grant Aves., was an outpost of civilization 30 years
before Kansas Statehood. It served as the first executive headquar
ters of the first Territorial Governor. As a training ground for army offi
cers, it is accorded an eminent position among military posts. Grant Ave
nue, the main thoroughfare, connects with other paved highways and
narrow, tree-shaded drives. A studious atmosphere pervades the fort, par
ticularly in the vicinity of the Command and General Staff School. Traffic
is required to move slowly here.
"Cantonment Leavenworth" was established by Col. Henry H. Leaven
worth in 1827 and four companies of the Third Regiment under Colonel
Leavenworth s command were immediately set to work building the can
tonment. Tents pitched on the west bank of the Missouri River soon were
replaced with huts of logs and bark, occupying the approximate site of the
240 CITIES AND TOWNS
present Main Parade, north of Kearney Avenue, between McClellan Ave
nue and Sumner Place. As a protection against Indians, a stone wall was
built on higher ground on the south.
Soon malarial fever depleted the little garrison. The sickness recurred
in 1828 and 1829. Cholera, too, was taking a heavy toll from the frontier
army and nearly wiped out some of the Indian villages in the vicinity of
Fort Leavenworth. The situation became so critical that on April 28, 1832,
Gen. Winfield Scott issued the following order:
Every soldier or ranger who shall be found drunk or insensibly intoxicated after
the publication of this order will be compelled, as soon as his strength will permit,
to dig his grave at a suitable burying place large enough for his own reception, as
such grave cannot fail to be wanted for the drunken man himself or for some
drunken companion.
The first post office in this region was established here May 29, 1828.
It was an outfitting point for troops in the Mexican War and later for
California gold seekers. Many famous names are associated with the his
tory of the fort ; among them Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Buffalo
Bill Cody, the last of whom spent his boyhood in the vicinity. In 1834 the
First Dragoons, organized in 1833 as the first cavalry regiment in the
Army, was ordered here and showed to a great advantage over the slow-
moving infantry in the pursuit of well-mounted Indians.
Congress designated Fort Leavenworth as temporary capital of the Ter
ritory. But the first Governor, Reeder, arriving October 7, 1854, found
inadequate quarters, and soon sought more commodious housing at Shaw-
nee Mission (see Tour 4), in Johnson County. During the Civil War
thousands of volunteers were mustered in and trained here and important
ordnance stores were guarded. But the expected southern attack never
came.
From this fort went officers to serve in the Spanish- American War ; and
it became an active training center during the World War. Gen. John J.
Pershing and Marshall Ferdinand Foch visited the fort after the war and
tendered their praise.
At the south end of Scott Avenue is the COMMAND AND GEN
ERAL STAFF SCHOOL, a combination of four buildings Sheridan,
Grant, Sherman, and Wagner Halls which ranks second only to the
Army War College in Washington, D. C, as a training school for officers.
Of yellow brick, with broad entrances, the long consolidation of buildings
is surmounted with a tower with illuminated clock dials on its four sides.
Established in 1881 by order of Gen. William T. Sherman, who before
the Civil War was a lawyer in Leavenworth, the school has constantly
improved in its broad objective of training officers for command and for
general staff duty. Names of the Nation s greatest military leaders have
been associated with its growth and progress. A school library includes
virtually every military book in existence. About 250 officers graduate
yearly.
The RESIDENCE OF THE COMMANDANT, No. i Scott Ave
nue, was built about 1861 to house the officer in charge. It has undergone
considerable reconstruction and is now one of the most attractive residence
LEAVENWORTH 24!
buildings at the fort. It is occupied (1938) by Brigadier General Leslie J.
McNair.
At 611 Scott Avenue is the site of the FORMER HOME OF
HIRAM RICH, the post sutler, where Andrew H. Reeder took his meals
during his brief stay at Leavenworth. It has been completely rebuilt into a
modern two-story English Colonial house and has been occupied variously
by post sutlers, department and post commanders. It was constructed of
logs about 1841.
A MONUMENT TO GEN. ULYSSES S. GRANT stands in a tiny
triangular park at the confluence of Scott and Grant Avenues. This bronze
statue was designed by Lorado Taft and erected in 1889.
North of this monument is the HISTORIC STONE WALL erected
by Colonel Leavenworth s men in 1827.
A bronze marker was placed through the efforts of the Capt. Jesse
Leavenworth Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.
A BRANCH OF THE SANTA FE AND OREGON TRAILS
started approximately 100 yards south of the present Missouri Pacific
Railroad station at the foot of what is now Riverside Avenue. The ruts
where pioneers landed their wagons and teams from river steamboats and
pulled up a steep grade can still be traced between the trees. The wagons
moved along the present route of Kearney Avenue on west to make con
nections with the well-trodden Santa Fe and Oregon Trails.
At 12-14 Sumner Place is the FORMER HOME OF GOVERNOR
REEDER, representing in part the oldest building at the fort. It is a two-
story structure with a porch or gallery extending along the entire breadth
of its upper story. Built of native stone in 1834, a brick extension was
added in 1879 anc ^ ^ ater tne entire building was stuccoed. It is just north
of the site of the old Dragoon barracks.
On the southwest corner of Scott and McPherson Avenues is POPE
HALL, occupying the site of an old assembly hall, school building,
and post chapel, erected about 1850, which served as the first execu
tive headquarters of the Territory. Governor Reeder maintained his offices
here from October 7 to November 24, 1854.
A COLONIAL STYLE BRICK HOUSE, at No. 17 Sumner Place,
is one of the oldest and most interesting at the fort. It was built about
1840 and became the home of the post commanders, who were hosts to
numerous distinguished guests here until 1890. Since then it has served as
officers quarters.
On the northwest corner of McPherson and Riverside Avenues is
the U. S. PRISON ANNEX, formerly the U. S. Military Prison and Dis
ciplinary Barracks, which was started in 1875. Previous to that time mili
tary prisoners were sent to penitentiaries with civilian convicts. The walls
and buildings are of gray stone quarried on the Reservation.
Three times have prisoners engaged in strikes here. In 1919 the prison
was crowded beyond capacity with "conscientious objectors," radicals, and
I.W.W. s, who overflowed into a stockade. Many were men of good char
acter who had received excessive sentences amid the war hysteria for triv
ial offenses. Bitter resentment against such injustice flared into violence
242 CITIES AND TOWNS
January 25, 1919. A Negro struck his white opponent after a card game,
and during the ensuing racial conflict many Negroes were taken to the
prison hospital suffering from severe beatings. The white men who beat
them were sent to "the hole," a place of isolation. A prison labor gang
went on a "folded arms strike" January 29, and refused to work. One of
the conscientious objectors said their chief grievance was the needless pro
longation of their war-time sentences. When a strikers committee con
ferred with prison officials later in the day, they were told that this matter
of holding the war prisoners after peace had been taken up with Wash
ington only a week before. Col. Sedgwick Rice, the Fort Commandant,
ordered the release of men from "the hole," and left for Washington to
present the case to the War Department. The "fold-arms" prisoners re
turned to work.
But neither pardons nor commutations resulted, and another strike was
called in May 1919 with a demand for recognition of a prisoners com
mittee. This revolutionary demand was granted. A board of officers sent
by Washington arrived July 7 to review the cases, but before action was
taken the prisoners were on strike for a third time. The warden practically
acquiesced in the demands of the prisoners committee, and a veritable
government by soviet was established. The situation became so tense that
extra prison guards and additional troops were stationed inside and out
side the prison walls. Machine guns were placed at strategic points, cells
were searched for weapons, and the men were put on a diet of "bread,
water and toothpicks." By July 26 the cowed prisoners asked to be re
turned to work, and to their regular meals, but Colonel Rice chose to ex
tend the punishment until July 29, when they were returned to work at
full rations. On August 3, 1919, 128 of the mutineers were taken under
heavy guard to Alcatraz Island.
The old prison now serves as an annex to the Federal Penitentiary,
principally for the confinement of narcotic addicts.
The FORT LEAVENWORTH MUSEUM (open weekdays 1-5; Sun.
and holidays 2-5), is in a small brick building just west of the iyth In
fantry barracks on McPherson Avenue. The first floor contains a collec
tion of vehicles including the carriage in which Abraham Lincoln rode
from Troy to Leavenworth, Kansas, December 1859; an ^ prairie
schooner; and several stagecoaches, Army transport wagons and hansom
cabs. On the second floor is a collection of Indian artifacts found within
a radius of a few miles of the fort and dioramas depicting Kansas his
tory, the work of the Kansas WPA Museum Project.
The NATIONAL CEMETERY (open 9-4), opposite entrance to the
golf course on Biddle Boulevard, is surrounded by a stone wall and
contains hundreds of neatly aligned small stone markers over the graves
of soldiers who fought in the War of 1812, the Indian campaigns and the
Mexican, Civil, Spanish, Philippine, and World Wars. Gen. Henry H.
Leavenworth, the fort s founder, is buried here. He died July 21, 1834,
while leading an expedition against the Pawnee four days before orders
were issued promoting him to the rank of brigadier general. He was bur
ied at Delhi, N. Y. In 1901 his body was returned to Fort Leavenworth.
FEDERAL PRISON, LEAVENWORTH
A massive granite shaft unveiled on Memorial Day, May 30, 1902, bears
an inscription to his memory. This tract was set aside for a cemetery in
1860 and bodies from two older burial grounds at the fort were rein-
terred here, some without identification. They included soldiers and civil
ians who had died in the vicinity of the fort and others brought in from
the plains along the Santa Fe Trail. Among the known dead are five offi
cers of the Seventh Cavalry, including Capt. T. W. Custer, a brother of
Gen. George A. Custer, who died in the battle of the Little Big Horn;
Prvt. John Urquhart, one of the "hot heads" of Charleston, S. C, who
fired the volley on Fort Sumter; and six Confederate soldiers mortally
wounded in the battle of Westport. A monument marking the grave of
Col. Edward Hatch lists 54 battles in which he was engaged.
South of the National Cemetery is the SUMMER TRAINING
CAMP, where R.O.T.C. students from colleges and C.M.T.C. cadets are
given military training for six week and four week periods, respectively.
Rows of plain, one-story frame buildings provide "mess," bath, and ex
ecutive quarters during the sessions, when the camp is a mass of neatly
aligned army tents.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Leavenworth County State Park, 29.6 m. (see Tour 3) ; U. S. Veteran s Adminis
tration Facility, 3.9 m.; St. Mary s College, 4 m.; Home Site of Buffalo Bill, 6 m.
(see Tour 12 A).
Railroad Stations: E. Lincoln St. for Union Pacific R.R.; ist and E. Grant Sts. for
Missouri Pacific R.R.
Bus Stations: Olson Cafe, 134 N. Main St. for Missouri Pacific, Southwestern Grey
hound, Cardinal, and Santa Fe Bus Lines; passengers also picked up at Carlton
Hotel, corner Main and Lincoln Sts.
Traffic Regulations: No U-turns in the business district. Speed limit 15 m. No
parking limits.
Accommodations: Two hotels; rooms in private homes.
Information Service: Carlton Hotel, and Western Union Service.
Motion Picture House: One, not open Sundays.
Annual Events: Art Exhibit at the Swedish Pavilion during Easter Week. The
Messiah presented every Palm Sunday and Easter at Bethany College; Community
Fair held at Ling Gymnasium, Oct.
LINDSBORG (1,332 alt., 2,016 pop.), in the valley of the Smoky Hill
River within the central Kansas wheat belt, is the center of an Old World
culture unusual in this section of the country. Settled by a Swedish so
ciety, Lindsborg took its name from the first syllable of the surname of
three society members S. P. Lindgren, S. A. Lindell, A. P. Linde and
borg (Sw., castle}. The population is composed almost entirely of persons
of Swedish birth or descent.
Outwardly, Lindsborg is like a score of other agricultural communities.
Sturdy brick and limestone buildings line its main street. Most of the
homes in the residential districts are neat frame structures with closely cut
lawns. Only in an occasional glimpse of a tiny garden, an arched window,
or the slender, grey spire of Bethany Church does the town reflect its char
acter to the casual observer.
Every year on Palm Sunday, music lovers from all sections of the Mid
dle West crowd into Presser Hall to hear a presentation of Handel s ora
torio, The Messiah, sung by a chorus of 500 voices. The Oratorio Society
is the center about which the Annual Messiah Festival has grown. The
festival continues through Holy Week with concerts, contests, and recitals
until Good Friday, when a rendition of Bach s Passion According to St.
Matthew is given, concluding on Easter Sunday with a second perform
ance of The Messiah.
Lindsborg was organized in 1868 by the Chicago Swedish Company
and its first building was the company s house, where religious services
were held and business was transacted. The following year the first dwell
ing house was erected by the Swedish Merchants Association and the first
store and post office was opened, with J. H. Johnson, the storekeeper, as
postmaster.
244
LINDSBORG 245
McPherson County was organized in 1870 with the village of Sweadal,
two miles from Lindsborg, as a temporary county seat, but in September
1870 it was moved to Lindsborg. A petition asking for relocation of the
county seat was presented to the board of commissioners in April 1873,
signed by the citizens of McPherson, King City, and Gotland. An election
was called, and these three towns competed with Lindsborg.
The McPherson town company offered land as a site for the courthouse
and rooms for the county offices for a period of ten years or until a court
house could be completed. When the votes were counted McPherson had
605 out of the total vote of 934 and the county offices were moved to
that town. There were rumors of illegal voting, due to the fact that the
vote cast exceeded the county s population by nearly 200, but charges were
never pressed.
The story of the Messiah Festival, however, is the story of Lindsborg.
In the late iSoo s, while on a European tour, Dr. Olaf Olsson of Augus-
tana College, Rock Island, III., heard a rendition of the Handel oratorio
in Exeter Hall, London. Returning home, he attempted to develop a simi
lar chorus in Rock Island, but was unsuccessful, although some recitals
were given. In 1878, Dr. Carl Swensson, recently graduated from Augus-
tana, was appointed to the pastorate of Bethany Church. Having heard the
recitals in Rock Island, he became imbued with the idea of founding a
Messiah chorus in Lindsborg, and, with the assistance of his bride, Alma,
he began the undertaking in 1881.
From the village and the adjacent farms the young couple gathered a
group of fifty singers. The Swedish pioneers, with their natural love of
music, were enthusiastic pupils, but rehearsing was difficult, for only a
few of them had ever seen a music score before. Bad roads and primitive
means of transportation delayed rehearsals. In many instances the trip to
Bethany Church for the Sunday afternoon practice sessions took three or
four hours.
Despite these obstacles the work continued and on Easter Sunday 1882
the chorus gave its first recital. An orchestra was imported from Rock
Island, Dr. Olsson acted as director and organist, and the chorus was con
ducted by Joseph Osborn. Concerts were held in neighboring towns that
year and receipts were given to Bethany College, founded in 1881, of
which Dr. Swensson was the first president. So encouraged were the
founders by the interest in the chorus that The Messiah was repeated the
following year, and since 1889 has been presented annually on Palm
Sunday and Easter Sunday.
During its half century of existence the choir has appeared outside
Lindsborg on only four occasions. The most notable performance was
given at Convention Hall, Kansas City, Mo., in 1930. It was in that year
that the new Presser Hall, a magnificent music temple, was completed on
the college campus. Mrs. Swensson, who is 78 years of age (1938), still
sings a soprano role in the chorus she helped establish and has missed
but one performance since the first recital in 1882.
No person in the chorus receives pay. As early as 1892, however, Dr.
Swensson began engaging artists and singers of national reputation to
ART MUSEUM, BETHANY COLLEGE, LINDSBORG
give special concerts during the festival week. In that year, Remenyi, one
of the foremost violinists of the time, appeared in a recital. Since then
many noted musicians have taken part in the activities of festival week,
among them Nordica, Schumann-Heink, Gadski, Galli Curci, Giannini,
Matzenauer, Ysaye, Marion Talley, Sigrid Onegin, Frances Alda, Claire
Dux, Erika Morini, Richard Crooks, Elsa Alsen, and Helen Marshall.
The director of the choir (1938), Dr. Hagbard Brase, has held this po
sition since 1914. Dr. Brase is a native of Sweden and a graduate of the
Royal Conservatory of Music at Stockholm. He is a member of the Amer
ican Guild of Organists and has achieved success as a composer and con
ductor.
Lindsborg is also well-known as the home of Prof. Sven Birger Sand-
zen, a painter of international reputation. Professor Sandzen, the dean of
Kansas artists, has been a member of the faculty of Bethany College since
1894 and is now (1938) professor of Art History and director of the Art
School of the Lindsborg institution.
Wood carving is another Old World art that is practiced in Lindsborg,
and many outstanding character interpretations have been produced by
Lindsborg artisans. The figures are usually carved from basswood and sel
dom exceed ten inches in height. Some are faithful representations of
American characters, others portray Old Country costumes and activities.
Probably the most notable of Lindsborg s wood carvers are Anton Pear
son and John A. Altenborg.
LINDSBORG 247
POINTS OF INTEREST
BETHANY COLLEGE, Swensson and 2nd Sts., was founded in 1881,
largely through the efforts of Dr. Carl A. Swensson, who served as
its first president. Classes opened on October 15, 1881, in a building com
pleted during the previous summer. The following year the college was
placed under the directorship of the Swedish Lutheran Church, and was
incorporated. Its students come, for the most part, from Swedish Lutheran
families in the Kansas Conference district of the church. The college,
which is co-educational, has an average annual enrollment of about 400.
Departments include preparatory, normal, commercial and college train-
in -, art, and IHUSK.
Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, dean of Kansas college presidents, has been pres
ident of the college since 1904.
Among the nine buildings on the compact, elm-shaded campus is
PRESSER HALL (open 8-5, school days), scene of the annual music fes
tivals since 1931. It was named in honor of Theodore Presser, music pub
lisher of Philadelphia, in recognition of his gift of $75,000 to the insti
tution. The building was designed by Henry C. Eckland & Co. of Kansas
City, Missouri, and ground for the three-story brick and concrete structure
was broken by the Crown Prince of Sweden on his visit to Lindsborg,
March 17, 1927. In November 1928 the first wing, including the audito
rium, which has a seating capacity of 2,750, was completed. The studio
wing, with studios, classrooms, rehearsal halls, and practice rooms, was
completed in 1930.
Benefit concerts contributed materially to the building fund and the
structure was completed without indebtedness. Mme. Schumann-Heink,
who said, "America has no other Lindsborg, I want to have a hand in this
one," gave a benefit recital on May 16, 1926, and on November 2, 1928,
Marion Talley, formerly of the Metropolitan Opera, as her contribution,
dedicated the auditorium at a recital. The pipe organ is the gift of Francis
J. Plyn of Niles, Michigan.
The MAIN BUILDING, a five-story structure of brick and lime
stone, was completed in 1886. It contains a dining hall, classrooms, chapel,
men students living apartments, science laboratories, and the museum.
BETHANY COLLEGE MUSEUM (open 8-5, weekdays), on the first floor,
contains a collection of natural history and ethnology exhibits. It has a
valuable numismatic collection containing more than 3,000 specimens of
rare gold, silver, copper, and bronze coins.
BETHANY CHURCH is a gray stone structure of classic design
with a steeple rising 150 feet and topped with a cross. Here Dr. Swensson
held the first Messiah concert. Two wings have been added to the original
building which served for a time as a part of Bethany College. Above the
altar is a painting by G. N. Malm of Lindsborg, Christ at Bethany, in
which the Christ is represented with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Left of
the altar is The Ascension, and on the right The Resurrection of Lazarus,
both by Birger Sandzen.
The church was organized in 1868, and on August 18, 1869, Dr. Olaf
248 CITIES AND TOWNS
Olsson arrived to assume the pastorate, which he occupied until he was
called to the presidency of Augustana College.
In 1878, when Dr. Swensson succeeded to the pastorate, the church had
323 communicants. At his first annual meeting it was decided to sell a
part of the land granted the church by the Missouri Pacific Railroad and
to use half of the proceeds in building an addition to the church, laying
the other half aside to be used as a fund for Bethany College.
The SWEDISH PAVILION (open 2-5, school days), home of the
Bethany College Art Department, was presented to the college by the
Swedish Government through W. W. Thomas, former U. S. Minister to
Sweden and Norway. It was part of Sweden s exhibit at the St. Louis
World s Fair in 1904 and was reconstructed on the Bethany College
campus shortly after the close of the exposition. Built of wood with a red
tile roof, the design is based on the old style of Swedish manor house
with a main hall and two smaller buildings connected by porticos. All
material used in its construction was brought from Sweden. In the pa
vilion are paintings by Kansas artists.
BIRGER SANDZEN S STUDIO (open on application), 421 N. 2nd
St., a one-story building of frame and stucco, contains a collection of
prints, bronzes, wood carvings, and oils. Among the paintings by contem
porary artists are The Brown Bottle, and Portrait of a Child by Henry
Varnum Poor, former Kansan. Just outside Dr. Sandzen s studio window
is The Little Triton, a bronze statue by Carl Milles, which was presented
to a group of Milles Lindsborg friends with the stipulation that it stand
in Dr. Sandzen s garden. It was on display at the Texas Centennial Ex
position at Dallas in 1936.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Coronado Heights, Soldier Cap Mound, 3.7 m.; Sharp s Creek, 6 m.; Shelter Belt
Nursery, 12.6 m.; Salemsborg, 22.6 m. (see Tour 9).
<<<<<<&&gt;>>>>>>>>>>>
Manhatta
Railroad Stations: 4th and El Paso Sts. for Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. ; ist
and Yuma Sts. for Union Pacific R.R.
Bus Stations: Wareham Hotel, 418 Poyntz Ave. for Greyhound Lines; 5th and
Poyntz Ave. in rear of Scheu s Cafe, for Sante Fe Trailways, Interstate Transit Lines.
Buses: Intra-city, fare 50.
Taxis: Minimum fare, io0.
Traffic Regulations: Traffic lights on Poyntz Ave. in downtown business section.
No U turns in business district.
Accommodations: Three hotels; seven tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 4th and Humboldt Sts.
Radio Station: KSAC (580 kc.).
Motion Picture Houses: Four.
Athletics: Memorial Stadium, Kansas State College campus, for college athletic
events.
Su imming: Free swimming pool in City Park, nth and Leavenworth Sts.
Tennis: City Park, nth and Leavenworth Sts.
Golf: Manhattan Country Club on Bluemont Hill, 18 holes, greens fee 50^, week
days, 750 Sun. and holidays; Stagg Hill, 2.5 m. W. on US 40, 18 holes, greens fee
500.
Annual Events: Farm and Home Week, Jan.; Annual Engineers Open House, given
by the students of the Engineering Division, Kansas State College, March; Kansas
State College Homecoming, Oct. ; State High School Band Contest, Nov.
MANHATTAN (1,012 alt, 10,136 pop.), seat of Riley County, lies in
a natural bowl carved out of a limestone formation during the glacial age.
The Big Blue River flowing from the north through the upland pastures
meets the Kaw River one mile east of the city limits. Before the great
flood of 1903 the Big Blue ran past the city at the foot of Poyntz Avenue,
the main street, but the flood formed a new channel one mile east of the
old river bed, washing away hundreds of acres of rich farm land.
Encircled by low hills, Manhattan is an oasis of green during the late
summer months when the bluestem grasses that cover the hills are turned
to an autumnal brown by the sun. With streets well-shaded by spreading
elms, the city, seen from the adjoining countryside gives the appearance
of a great park. Here and there the outline of one of the taller buildings
is visible above the mass of green.
The city extends a little more than a mile west from the old river chan
nel, spreading to the north and south from Poyntz Avenue, a wide thor
oughfare that ends abruptly as it encounters the first slopes of the lime
stone hills. The State College campus adjoins the city on the northwest
and most of the new residential development is in this area. South of
Poyntz Avenue an older section of modest homes extends to the Rock
249
2)0 CITIES AND TOWNS
Island tracks. Along the railroad is a small area inhabited by Negroes and
Mexicans.
Many of Manhattan s business houses and residences and all of its pub
lic buildings, including those of Kansas State College, are built of native
limestone.
Kansas second largest educational institution, the State College, is the
center of activity in Manhattan. Stores depend upon the patronage of the
farm territory and the 4,500 students. The city supports four newspapers.
These include a morning and an evening daily and two weeklies of city
and rural circulation. Five periodicals are published by educational groups.
The city has two business districts, one downtown and another adjoin
ing the college campus. The uptown district has been known as "Aggie-
ville" since the days when the college was known as the Kansas State
Agricultural College and its students as the "Aggies."
Successive settlements of Germans, Swedes, and Irish have placed de
scendants of the New England and Ohio founders in a minority in con
temporary Manhattan but the spirit of the crusading pioneers prevails.
The city supports eighteen churches and these religious groups exert a
strong influence in its social life.
Manhattan was one of the last towns in the State to lift the ban on
Sunday theaters. This compromise with the champions of strict Sabbath
observance was the result of a heated controversy between church leaders
and business men. State College students flocked to Junction City, Wa-
mego, and other neighboring towns to attend Sunday night movies and
proprietors of cafes and soft drink emporiums in the college town com
plained that they were losing trade because of this weekly exodus. In 1934
the question was submitted to a vote and proponents of Sunday amuse
ment won by a small majority. Since then Manhattan has been more suc
cessful in keeping students dollars at home.
Years before the first white settlers came, a large Kaw Indian village
stood near the mouth of the Big Blue. The exact site of this village is
undetermined, but it is believed to have been in the area between the old
river bed and the new channel. Early explorers reported the existence of
the village, which disappeared before the first settler arrived.
Two towns were established on the present site of Manhattan late in
1854. Col. George S. Park of Parkville, Missouri, platted a townsite and
called it Poleska. Soon afterward a second settlement, called Canton, was
established near the mouth of the Big Blue by a committee from the New
England Emigrant Aid Company. This settlement was soon consolidated
with Poleska under the name of Boston. On April 27, 1855, a party of
colonists left Cincinnati on the steamboat Hartford, destined for the new
Boston. They navigated the Ohio River to its junction with the Mississippi
and then to St. Louis where they were delayed for several days by authori
ties who suspected them of being abolitionists. Resuming their journey
toward Kansas City by way of the Missouri River the Ohioans arrived at
the mouth of the Kaw late in May. There they were delayed because of
low water.
Tardy spring rains finally raised the river to what was believed to be a
MANHATTAN 251
navigable level, but near St. Mary s Mission the boat, carrying, in addition
to the colonists, a load of freight that included ten portable houses, stuck
on a sandbar. The passengers were unloaded and proceeded to their desti
nation by land, but within a few days, after another rise in the stream,
the boat arrived.
The Ohioans at first selected a site for their colony near the present
Junction City, and named it Manhattan. The leaders of the party, John
Pipher, Andrew J. Meade, and H. Palmer finally, however, closed a deal
with the Boston Association whereby they were given half of the Boston
townsite, and by mutual agreement Boston was renamed Manhattan.
Manhattan s pioneers were Free State men, and before the arrival of
the party from Cincinnati, the New England group had voted to install
one of their number, Samuel D. Houston, as Free State representatives to
the First Territorial legislature. Houston was the only Free State man
elected to this body.
With the development of agriculture in the fertile river valleys, Man
hattan became important as a trading center. Two railroads, the Rock
Island and the Union Pacific, extended their main lines through the town
in the seventies and eighties and it became a shipping point for farm
produce and for cattle from the upland grazing areas.
In 1859, Bluemont College, the forerunner of Kansas State College,
opened its doors. As the college grew, the city prospered. In 1910 the
city endeavored to expand its trade territory by voting $20,000 in bonds
for the construction of an electric railway between Manhattan and Fort
Riley. This line brought a proportion of the soldier trade from Camp
Funston to Manhattan during the World War, but with the advent of the
paved highway it went into decline and was finally abandoned.
Although Manhattan s economic structure is largely based on agriculture
and livestock raising, the city has a number of small industries including
two hatcheries, a creamery that manufactures butter, cheese and ice cream,
a monument works, a flour mill, two packing companies that process eggs
and poultry, and a serum plant. Two planing mills turn out cabinets, door
frames and boxes, and a third manufactures egg cases and shipping crates.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The CARNEGIE LIBRARY (open 10-5 weekdays), NW. corner
Poyntz Ave. and 5th St., erected in 1904, is a two-story brick and lime
stone building of neo-classic design. Operated as a municipal library, it
contains 30,000 volumes.
The FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NW. corner
Poyntz Ave. and 6th St., erected in 1925, is of English Gothic design,
constructed of native limestone. In the church is the old bell of the
steamer Hartford that brought the settlers from Cincinnati in 1855. The
original congregation was organized in 1858.
ST. PAUL S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SW. corner Poyntz Ave. and
6th St., built in 1865 of native limestone, was designed by Richard Up
john. It is an excellent example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture.
252 CITIES AND TOWNS
CITY PARK, nth St., between Poyntz Ave. and Fremont St., is a
45-acre tract equipped with playgrounds, a swimming pool, and tennis
courts. It is attractively landscaped, containing approximately 1,000 trees.
Near the Leavenworth Street entrance is a band pavilion with a seating
capacity of 1,000, erected under the sponsorship of the Manhattan Min
isterial Alliance, where band concerts and open-air church services are
held during the summer. Rose gardens, sponsored by the Manhattan Ki-
wanis Club and a rock garden sponsored by the Rotary Club attract visitors
from all parts of the country.
Near the center of the park is the TATARRAX MONUMENT, a
shaft of grey marble, ten feet high, resting on a truncated base of lime
stone four feet high. The monument was designed by J. V. Brower, one
of the founders of the Quivira Historical Society.
An OLD STAGECOACH, formerly used in Yellowstone Park, stands
just west of the monument. It was donated to the city by the Union
Pacific Railroad. Near the stagecoach is the LOG CABIN MUSEUM (open
Sun. afternoons during the summer months) ; containing a number of pio
neer relics.
The KANSAS STATE COLLEGE, i4th and Anderson Sts., has an
attractively landscaped 155-acre campus on which there are twenty build
ings of native limestone construction and modified Gothic design.
In 1857 an association was formed to build a college in or near Man
hattan. Under the direction of the Reverend Joseph Denison, Isaac Good-
now, and Washington Marlatt funds were raised for the purchase of a
farm one mile west of the present State College campus. A three-story
building was erected in 1859 an d the college, opened under the direction
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was given the name of Bluemont Col
lege. The Reverend Joseph Denison was chosen president. The college did
not prosper and in 1862 it was offered to the State as an agricultural and
mechanical college under the provisions of the Morrill Land Grant Act.
A resolution of the State legislature, approved by Gov. Thomas Carney,
February 3, 1863, created the Kansas State Agricultural College, a co
educational institution. Kansas State has graduated engineers, journalists,
and scientists in addition to its trained agronomists.
In 1931 the State legislature changed the name of the college from
Kansas State Agricultural College to Kansas State College of Agriculture
and Applied Science. It took Kansas sports writers quite a while to for
get the habit of referring to Kansas State athletic team as "The Aggies"
but the new appellation "wildcats" finally superseded the traditional
nickname.
In the early fall of 1934 Kansas State became the center of a contro
versy on compulsory military training. The Morrill Act, under which the
college was established, reads as follows:
. . . where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and
classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning
as are related to agriculture and the mechanical arts.
The school year of 1934 opened with a military training strike by three
freshmen who refused to drill and gave their abhorrence of war as a jus-
AIRVIEW, KANSAS STATE COLLEGE, MANHATTAN
tifkation. College authorities were insistent. Patriotic organizations took
up the fight for compulsion. Pacifist groups offered legal and moral sup
port to the striking students. Eventually the question was referred to the
State legislature at the session of 1935. Proponents of the forced drill
prepared legislation making it compulsory. Backed by the American Le
gion and the college authorities the bill was passed. Students who object
to drill must seek their education at other colleges.
Prof. Fred A. Shannon of the department of history won a Pulitzer
award for historical research in 1929. In 1933 the Kansas Magazine was
revived by Russell Thackery of the department of industrial journalism
(see LITERATURE). Prof. John Helm, Jr., of the department of archi
tecture, is now (1938) director of the Kansas State Federation of Art.
Kansas State had an enrollment of 4,457 in 1938.
In ANDERSON HALL, the college administration building, is a
MUSEUM (open 8-5 daily during the school year), that contains a collec
tion of antique furniture, a pottery collection, and other articles of in
terest.
In THE COLLEGE LIBRARY (open 8-5 daily during the school
year), is an art collection, including portraits, oils, and water colors. Some
of the paintings and murals, by WPA artists, were presented to the college
254 CITIES AND TOWNS
by the Federal Art Project of Kansas. On the fourth floor of the library
is an arch of stone letters forming the words, Bluemont College, 1859.
This arch was set above the entrance to old Bluemont College. It was
taken from an old barn a number of years ago and placed in the library.
FAIRCHILD HALL contains a large MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
(open 8-J during school year). There are many specimens of mounted
animals and reptiles as well as a collection of live snakes, lizards, and
alligators. Other exhibits include a large collection of mounted birds,
Indian artifacts, and a geological collection.
Kansas State College owns 1,428 acres of land, much of which is
used for agricultural experiments. At the extreme southwest corner of the
campus is a MEMORIAL STADIUM where the Kansas State athletic
teams compete with the other members of the Big Six conference. The
stadium was completed in 1922.
SUNSET CEMETERY, Sunset and Evergreen Aves. (R), on the
crest of a hill overlooking the city, contains the SOLDIERS MONUMENT,
erected in 1898 by the Lew Gove Post, Grand Army of the Republic. It is
an oblong shaft surmounted by an old cannon. A singing tower has been
erected in a new section of the cemetery.
DENISON CIRCLE, in the center of a winding drive at the inter
section of Evergreen and Sunset Aves., a sodded plot of ground 100 feet
in diameter has in its center THE REVEREND JOSEPH DENISON MONU
MENT, a memorial of red glacial boulders to the first president of Kansas
State College.
MEMORIAL ARCH, Evergreen and Poyntz Aves., was erected in
memory of Amanda Arnold, one of Manhattan s first school teachers. The
arch was taken from the old Central School building.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Fort Riley, 14.6 m. (see Tour 3); Beecher Bible and Rifle Church, 22.7 m. (see
Tour 3).
Med
cne oce
Railroad Station: W. Kansas St. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.
Bus Station: Hart Hotel, ist and Main Sts., for Anthony Stage Lines.
Accommodations: Two hotels and two tourist camps.
Motion Picture House: One.
Golf: Municipal Golf Course, Peace Treaty Park, E. limits of city, 9 holes, greens
fee 250.
Tennis: High school grounds, ist and Main St.
Annual Event: Peace Treaty Pageant, October of years with numerals ending in 2
and 7.
MEDICINE LODGE (1,500 alt., 1,655 pop.), seat of Barber County, is
a trim little town, spreading out comfortably on a hillside overlooking the
Medicine River and its timbered valley. Low brick buildings line the broad
main street and spreading trees shade modest frame houses in the residen
tial section.
Expanding gradually from Main Street, the thoroughfare upon which
the town s first log houses were built in the early iSyo s, Medicine Lodge
has grown with the surrounding country, adding new blocks and new
streets as more space was needed with little thought of a definite city plan.
Its streets jog and turn and oftentimes end blindly, and those on the out
skirts meet the open farmland suddenly.
Medicine Lodge, a country town with a rural serenity about it and a
trading center for farmers in the river valley, has a certain importance as
a shipping point for the vast wheat and cattle country to the south and
west. Its one industrial touch is the gypsum mill where gypsum rock,
mined in the hills that extend north and south on the west side of the
townsite, is made into cement and a fine grade of plaster used for making
molds and wall decorations. The mill furnished much of the plaster used
in Federal buildings in Washington, D. C.
Once each five years, Medicine Lodge presents a Peace Treaty Pageant
commemorating the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty negotiated by U. S.
Government representatives and the chiefs of five plains tribes in October
1867. The first pageant was held in 1927 on the sixtieth anniversary of
the signing of the Treaty and others have been held at five-year intervals
since that date.
The pageant, sponsored by the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Associa
tion, reenacts the signing of the treaty and hundreds of Medicine Lodge
residents and Indians from Oklahoma reservations participate. It is held
in a natural amphitheatre in Memorial Peace Park, on the eastern limits
255
256 CITIES AND TOWNS
of Medicine Lodge. Widely advertised, it is attended by thousands of per
sons from Kansas and neighboring States.
For years before the settlers arrived Indians in the region believed the
spot to be under the protection of the Great Spirit. Prairie fires, which
periodically destroyed tree growth along the western rivers, had passed
around the region making it seem that the waters of the Medicine River
possessed a magic power to protect the green woodland clinging to its
margin.
Representatives of all tribes in the Southwest met in peace at a little
medicine lodge which is said to have stood on the river bank near the
present townsite. Here they fasted and prayed and bathed in the curative
waters of the sacred river so that their bodily ills might be healed.
When settlement of the Territory was brought almost to a standstill by
constant Indian wars in the i86o s, representatives of the Federal Govern
ment made plans for a great peace council between the Indians and the
white men. Scouts, soldiers, settlers, and gold-seekers were enlisted to
carry word to tribes that Government representatives desired to meet them
and negotiate a treaty of peace at a place of their own choosing.
After months of tribal councils and powwows the tribes chose the site
of their medicine lodge on the banks of the wooded river. Two factors
influenced their choice. They believed that near their ancient sanctuary
the Great Spirit would watch over all that took place. The spot, too, was
miles from the white man s civilization and here, in their own country,
they believed there was less danger of treachery on the part of the white
men. Plans were completed for the meeting in the early fall of 1867 and
in October of that year at the present site of Medicine Lodge 15,000 In
dians met with 600 Government representatives in what is said to be the
largest gathering of Indians and whites in the history of the United States.
The commissioners, whose duty it was to negotiate the treaty with the
chiefs of the five plains tribes (Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, Apache, and
Cheyenne), were all men of prominence in war and Government affairs.
N. G. Taylor, orator and scholar, was president of the commission. Gen.
W. T. Sherman, Civil War hero, and S. J. Crawford, Governor of Kan
sas, were there as advisors. Others who played important parts were Col.
A. G. Boone, grandson of Daniel Boone, Col. Edward W. Wynkoop,
agent of the Arapaho and the Cheyenne, respected by the whites and pos
sessing the trust and confidence of the Indians, Col. James H. Leaven-
worth, agent of the Kiowa and the Comanche, Kit Carson and William
Mathewson, Indian fighters and scouts, and Jesse Chisholm, for whom the
Chisholm Cattle Trail was named. Henry M. Stanley, later known for his
explorations in Africa and his search for David Livingstone, covered the
event for the New York Tribune.
Towering above all the Indians in native intellect, and bearing a re
markable resemblance to Andrew Jackson, was Little Raven, orator and
chief of the Arapaho. A. A. Taylor, later Governor of Tennessee, attended
the council as a secretary. In an account of the event published in the early
1900 $ he said: "Little Raven s speech before the commission on the ques
tion of damages ... his reference to the ill treatment the Indians had
MEDICINE LODGE 257
received from the whites was scathing, and his plea for protection and
better treatment in the future was the most touching piece of impassioned
oratory to which I have listened before or since."
Of no less importance to the gathering were Satanta, chief of the
Kiowa; Young Bear, Iron Mountain, and Painted Lips of the Comanche;
Wolf Sleeve, Iron Shirt, and Crow of the Apache; and Black Kettle, Bull
Bear, and Slim Face of the Cheyenne.
Council meetings were held in a large tent near the river bank. Com
missioners and Indian chiefs sat on camp stools in a circle and secretaries
wrote on large packing boxes. Thus after three years of constant warfare,
Indians and whites met peaceably, exchanging words instead of blows and
concluding arguments with mutual concessions. Each chief spoke before
the council and the grievances and claims of each tribe were settled indi
vidually. At the end of the two weeks negotiations the treaty was signed.
It fixed the southern boundary of Kansas and stipulated that south of that
line should be Indian Territory "as long as grass grows and waters run."
It ended a war of three years duration, thus clearing the way for white
settlement of the entire southwest. As a result of the treaty the populations
of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, and Arizona
were augmented, making it indirectly responsible for the entrance of those
States into the Union.
White men are known to have settled in the region shortly after the
signing of the treaty, but it was not until 1873 that John Hutchinson and
a party of men laid out the town of Medicine Lodge on a 4OO-acre site on
the river bank. The town s first public buildings were a hotel and a store,
surrounded by a cluster of log houses. In 1874, known as the "grasshop
per year," swarms of insects destroyed the corn and vegetables that would
have sustained the new settlers during the next winter. Experiencing its
share of business failures and hardships brought about by droughts, floods,
and blizzards, the town continued to grow slowly and, without the stim
ulus of a boom period, overcame the effects of each disaster.
In 1884 Medicine Lodge was a straggling country town without a rail
road, and the cattle business was its chief source of income. The commu
nity boasted only one outstanding institution, the Medicine Valley Bank
of which E. Wylie Payne was president and George Geppert was cashier.
On May i, 1884 four men rode into town and attempted to hold up the
bank. They killed Geppert, mortally wounded Payne, and fled south, with
a posse of townsmen hastily organized by Barney O Connor, a prominent
cattleman, in pursuit.
Aided by a group of cowboys the posse surrounded the bandits in a
narrow canyon in the Gypsum Hills southwest of town. Trails leading out
of the canyon were barred by riflemen, who covered an unarmed member
of the posse sent into the canyon to demand their surrender. Realizing
that they were trapped, the four men walked out with upraised hands and
were placed in a small frame house which served as a jail.
Payne died shortly after nightfall. When word of his death passed
through the crowd, the rumbling of voices in the streets was punctuated
with cries of "Lynch them! Lynch them!"
258 CITIES AND TOWNS
The leader of the gang, killed in an attempt to escape from the jail,
was John Henry Brown, city marshal of Caldwell, "reformed" bad man
and former companion of the robber and killer, "Billy the Kid." Brown
had a record of excellent work in Caldwell and had been presented with
a gold-mounted Winchester rifle by residents of the town. With Brown
were Ben Wheeler, assistant marshal of Caldwell, and Billy Smith and
John Wesley, cowboys from Texas. Wheeler, Wesley, and Smith came to
their death, according to the report of the coroner s jury, "by hanging at
the hands of a mob, composed of persons unknown."
The town s first newspaper was the Barber County Mail, founded in
1878 by M. C. Cochran. In 1879 the paper was purchased by J. W. Mc-
Neal and E. W. Iliff, who changed its name to the Medicine Lodge
Cresset. At this time T. A. (Tom) McNeal became associated with the
paper. Tom McNeal served a term as mayor of Medicine Lodge, was
State printer for six years and is now (1938) one of the editors of the
Topeka Capital and the dean of Kansas newspapermen.
It was in Medicine Lodge in the summer of 1890 that "Sockless Jerry"
Simpson, Populist leader, began the career that gained him Nation-wide
publicity. Simpson, a resident of Medicine Lodge, acquired the name
"Sockless Jerry" in his campaign for Congress against James R. Hollo-
well, a Republican. Appearing upon the same platform with his opponent
one day Simpson attempted to brand Hollowell as an advocate of luxury
with the statement, "My opponent wears silk stockings." Hollowell, stoop
ing to pull up Simpson s trouser leg to display a few inches of bare ankle
retorted, "My opponent wears no socks at all."
Simpson was victorious in the election held the following fall and as
"Sockless Jerry" Simpson of Kansas held an important place in State and
national politics for a decade.
Carry Nation, militant reformer and prohibitionist, moved to Medicine
Lodge in the late i88o s; she and her husband, David Nation, rented a
tiny stone house just west of Main Street. It was not until the last year of
the century, however, that she began her crusade against liquor which
later took her to all parts of the United States and to England.
In the 1890*5 dissension ran high in Medicine Lodge and in the sur
rounding country between cattlemen who wanted an open range and set
tlers who wanted to make homes, build fences, and till the soil. By 1900,
however, the feud subsided and today cattlemen own great ranches to the
south and west of town and farmers raise their chickens and hogs, plant
their gardens and till the soil in the fertile valley along the river. The
two industries cattle raising and farming contribute about equally to
the economic life of Medicine Lodge.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The PEACE TREATY MONUMENT N. end of Main St. was erected
by the United States Government and the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty
Association in 1929. It is a marble statue of a frontiersman and an
Indian clasping hands.
MEDICINE LODGE
259
CARRY NATION
MEMORIAL PEACE PARK, E. limits of city on US 160 is a wooded
area containing a natural amphitheatre, recreational facilities, and a
network of foot trails. The park is the scene of the Peace Treaty Pageant
produced every five years to commemorate the Medicine Lodge Peace
Council.
The HOME OF CARRY NATION (private), NE. corner Fowler
Ave. and Oak St., is a one-story gray stone structure marked by a bronze
plaque presented by the W.C.T.U.
Mrs. Nation s first public demonstration occurred in Medicine Lodge
on a Saturday afternoon in the summer of 1899 when she and a few of
260 CITIES AND TOWNS
her associates held a prayer meeting in front of one of the town s seven
saloons, singing to the accompaniment of a small hand organ. By that
time Medicine Lodge had become a thriving trading center and the streets
were jammed with farmers, cattlemen, and townspeople. A large crowd
soon collected about the little group of women and Mrs. Nation, encour
aged by the audience, launched into a tirade on the evils of liquor. Each
time she paused for breath and inspiration her companions waved their
arms and sang:
They who tarry at the wine cup,
They who tarry at the wine cup,
They who tarry at the wine cup
They have sorrow, they have woe.
Then suddenly, clutching a big, black umbrella by the stem, Mrs. Na
tion stormed the door of the saloon. The proprietor, however, watching
the activities from inside the window, had anticipated the move and Mrs.
Nation found the door locked and bolted. Pounding on it she shouted to
him: "You are a child of Satan. You will go to Hell!" And then, waving
her umbrella and singing "Jn n Brown s Body Lies A-mouldering in the
Grave" she led the group down Main Street to her home. According to
her autobiography, written about five years later, it was then that she ex
perienced "the birth pangs of a new obsession and realized that she was
to become the J onn Brown of Prohibition. Mrs. Nation retained her
residence in Medicine Lodge for several years after the turn of the cen
tury, but she directed her militant attentions elsewhere. Early in 1900 she
used stones and bricks to smash a saloon in Kiowa, also in Barber County,
but it was not until she reached Wichita during the latter part of that year
that she first used the hatchet for which she became nationally known.
The GYPSUM MILL (open 8-5 weekdays), Harvey St. at the W.
limits of town, prepares raw gypsum for use in plaster by the calcine proc
ess. The plant has a capacity of 50,000 tons per year and gives employ
ment to approximately 100 men.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Gypsum Hills, 4 m.; Twin Peaks, 6 m. (see Tour 6).
<< <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<)->>>>>>>>
Newton
Railroad Stations: A. T. & S. F. Ry. depot, SE. corner 5th and Main Sts., for Atchi-
son Topeka & Santa Fe Ry.; 6th St. and Kansas Ave. for Missouri Pacific Electric
Ry.; 123 W. 5th St. for Arkansas Valley Interurban Ry., service between Wichita,
Hutchinson, and Newton.
Bus Station: A. T. & S. F. Ry. depot for Santa Fe Trailways System.
Taxis: Minimum fare io0.
Accommodations: Nine hotels, three tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, 5001/2 Main St.
Motion Picture Houses: Three.
Su imming: Newton Swimming Pool, Athletic Park, west end of ist St.
Golf: Newton Golf Club, 0.6 m. S. of city limits on US 81, 18 holes, greens
fee 5O0.
Tennis: Municipal courts, Athletic Park, west end ist St.; Themian Park, west edge
of city between yth and 8th Sts.
Annual Events: Newton Trade Show, March; Mennonite Music Festival, May;
Institute of International Relations, June; Labor Day celebration, Sept.
NEWTON (1,439 a ^- II >34 PP-)> seat f Harvey County, is a trading
center for the surrounding wheat country, and a main division point of
the Santa Fe Railway. The city lies amid gently rolling hills. Main Street
is bisected by tracks down which rattle endless freight trains carrying oil
and grain to the east, merchandise and farm machinery to the west. About
twenty-five passenger trains, including sleek streamliners, halt daily at the
Main Street Depot.
Local economy is governed to a large extent by the activities of agricul
ture and the Santa Fe Ry., particularly the latter. Almost a thousand
inhabitants are employed in the shops, offices, and rail mill of the Santa
Fe. Railroad news often crowds politics and information of world import
onto the second page of the local papers. Labor Day is an important annual
festival celebrated with parades, oratory, fireworks, and brass bands.
Five per cent of the population is Mennonite. Some of them have re
nounced their traditional vocation of farming to enter business; there is a
Mennonite Mutual Fire Insurance Company and Bethel College is Men
nonite. Of the 23 churches in the community, the largest congregations
are the Methodists and the Mcnnonites.
A house built by A. F. Homer in Brookville, Kan., in the early 1870 $
was the first dwelling in Newton. Homer built it in order to win a town
lot offered by the promoters of Brookville for the first house erected there.
Within a few months Homer moved his 2O-by-6o-feet dwelling from
Brookville to Florence, to Newton, to Hutchinson, winning in turn the
lots offered by each town s promoters for the first dwelling. In July 1871
261
262 CITIES AND TOWNS
the Santa Fe Railway extended its line to the settlement which thereby
succeeded Abilene as the terminus of the Chisholm Trail. The cattle trade
turned Newton into a "cow town" overnight. Saloons, dancehalls, and
gambling houses for pleasure-starved cowboys sprouted from the plain.
Although this phase of Newton s growth only lasted until January 1873,
when the railroad was extended to Wichita, fifty persons are estimated to
have met sudden death in its saloons and dancehalls.
Most fearless of the gunmen in the booming settlement was Art Dela-
ney, better known as Mike McCluskie, a railroad agent hired as marshal
by local saloonkeepers and gambling house proprietors. McCluskie shot
and killed William Bailey, a Texas gambler. Hugh Anderson, a friend of
Bailey s who had driven a herd of longhorns to Newton from his father s
ranch in Texas, swore to kill McCluskie on sight. He was backed by Jim
Wilkerson, a sure- shot Kentuckian, and two fellow Texans, Will Garret
and Henry Kearnes.
On the night of August 9, 1871, McCluskie sauntered into the gaming
room of the Tuttle Dance Hall, accompanied by Riley, a thin tubercular
youth of eighteen, who worshipped the gunman and followed him around
like a faithful dog. Although warned that Anderson and his friends had
chosen this night to avenge Bailey s death, McCluskie lingered at the
gaming tables. Riley lounged near the door.
The door burst open and Hugh Anderson, Garret, Kearnes, Wilkerson,
and several cowpunchers strode into the room. The click of poker chips
stilled and the roulette wheels slowed to a stop. McCluskie leaped to his
feet and reached for his gun. Anderson fired. McCluskie spun around and
dropped, mortally wounded.
The frail Riley went berserk. Snatching a pair of pistols from his ragged
clothing, he began pumping lead. When he ceased firing, Anderson and
five of his henchmen lay bleeding on the floor. Jim Wilkerson was fatally
shot, two of the cowboys were dead, Garret, Kearnes, and Anderson were
wounded.
Riley ran from the room. Tom Carson, the new marshal, organized a
posse to search for the youth, but he was never seen again.
The Tuttle Dance Hall Massacre aroused the "better element" to reform
Newton. As an initial attempt the Reverend H. M. Haun, a fearless Meth
odist missionary, stalked into the Gold Room Saloon and announced that
he intended to conduct a religious meeting. "Go ahead, parson," the
loungers assented, "a little of the Word of God won t hurt us none."
Thus prompted, Haun held services behind an untapped keg of beer. As
he intoned the final Amen, two cowboys swept off their Stetsons and, with
six-shooters in hand, took a collection. Gold coins clinked into the hats.
Presenting the money with a flourish, the volunteer deacons bowed the
parson out graciously with a request that he return sometime for another
meeting.
Bernard Warkentin, a descendant of the group of German Mennonites
who migrated to Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great, was one
of the first of his faith to reach Kansas. In 1872 he settled at Halstead,
12 miles west of Newton, and established a small flour mill operated by
NEWTON 263
water from the Little Arkansas River. He later helped immigration agents
of the Santa Fe Railway by encouraging his kinsmen to leave the Russian
steppes for the Kansas prairies. Many of these devout, industrious people
settled near Newton, introducing an Old World culture to the region and
greatly furthering its agricultural development. With them they brought
precious Turkey Red wheat (see AGRICULTURE). In 1885 Warkentm
organized the Newton Milling and Elevator Company, which subsequently
became one of the largest in central Kansas.
Newton was designated a division point of the Santa Fe Railway in
1873. The water supply proved to be inadequate, however, and in 1879
the division offices were removed to Nickerson. In 1886 the Santa Fe built
the Hutchinson cut-off, which circumvented Nickerson and weakened its
position as a division point. The townspeople of Newton, seeing a chance
to regain the division point, began to negotiate with railroad officials. An
agreement was reached in 1894 whereby the Santa Fe promised to re
establish a division point at Newton if an abundant supply of good water
could be provided there.
Learning that Professor Erasmus Haworth of Lawrence had completed
a geological survey of Kansas, which showed that the old bed of the
Smoky Hill River extended through Harvey County, the citizens of New
ton enlisted his aid. Professor Haworth unhesitatingly selected a point in
the bed nearest the city, which when drilled, produced a vast supply of
subterranean water. For this valuable service the Professor charged New
ton $13.50.
Re-designated a division point and possessed of an inexhaustible water
supply, Newton forged ahead steadily, and by 1910 the population num
bered 7,862. Besides its railroad industries, Newton has a creamery, four
bakeries, one of which supplies a state-wide market, and four mills that
annually produce 700,000 barrels of flour.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The SITE OF THE FIRST WATER WELL, 5 th and Main Sts., dug
by Capt. David Payne in 1872, is marked by a bronze plate. Captain Payne
was a typical frontiersman, soldier, and Indian scout. He commanded a
company of the i9th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry in the Indian Wars of
1867. After contributing to the development of Harvey County, where for
many years he lived as a homesteader, he entered the movement to settle
Oklahoma (then Indian Territory) with whites. In Kansas history he is
known as the "Daddy of the Cherokee Strip."
The FROG AND SWITCH SHOP (open by permission of the
superintendent), between the main line Santa Fe tracks W. of ist St.,
(also known as the Santa Fe Rail Mill), supplies track fastenings for the
entire Santa Fe system. It was established in 1897 and until 1927, when
new facilities were installed, its operations were confined to sawing off
battered rail ends. With the advent of oxyacetylene welding this work was
gradually dropped.
The CARNEGIE LIBRARY (open 9-5 weekdays), 203 Main St.,
264 CITIES AND TOWNS
is a two-story building of classic design, with two Ionic columns of cut
stone supporting the portico. Construction is of brick and limestone. The
building was completed in 1903 and contains approximately 15,000
volumes.
The HARVEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM (open
by arrangement with custodian), 7131/2 Main St., contains a collec
tion of historical articles including the goose quill pen with which Gov.
John P. St. John signed the Prohibition Amendment to the Kansas Consti
tution in 1880. The original draft of the amendment, written by J. W.
Ady, Newton attorney and member of the State legislature, is also
preserved.
ATHLETIC PARK, west end of ist St., a 20-acre tract on Sand
Creek, contains a deer park, an outdoor stage, an artificial lake, a stadium
for night football and baseball, and a municipal swimming pool with
submarine lighting.
BETHEL COLLEGE, 0.5 m. N. of the city limits on State 15, is the
oldest and largest Mennonite educational institution in America. It was
chartered on May 23, 1887, following an agreement between the Kansas
conference of the Mennonite Church and the municipal government of
Newton, whereby the latter offered financial aid to establish a college at
Newton.
The cornerstone of the Administration Building was laid atop a small
hill north of the city in October 1888, but building operations were
stopped after a few months when Newton, owing to a depression, was
unable to supply funds for continuance of the work. Construction was
resumed in 1893, when the Administration Building was completed at a
cost of $35,000. The college was opened in September 1893, with 60
students enrolled.
Bethel was maintained as a preparatory school and junior college until
1908 when the curriculum was enlarged to that of a four-year standard
college. The first Bachelor of Arts degrees awarded by a Mennonite col
lege west of the Mississippi were received at Bethel in 1912 by a gradu
ating class of six men, two of whom are now (1938) members of the
faculty. The present curricula include courses in music, commerce, elocu
tion, fine arts, and liberal arts. The German department is outstanding.
The landscaped campus is shaded by elm and maple trees. Grouped
around the Administration Building are the Alumni, Music, Dining, and
Science Halls. These structures are of brick and native stone. In front of
Science Hall are two deeply notched cylindrical THRESHING STONES
brought from Russia by pioneer Mennonites. The stones were drawn by
oxen over wheat strewn thick on the ground, thus removing the grain
from the stalk. The threshing stone is the symbol of Bethel College.
Since 1937 the college has been a sponsor of the Kansas Institute of
International Relations, held here in June at the end of the school year.
Other sponsoring and contributing organizations are the American Friends
Service Committee, the Congregational Christian Council, the Kansas
Yearly Meeting of Friends, the Board of Christian Education of the United
NEWTON 265
Brethren Church, and the Peace Committee of the General Conference of
Mennonites.
The annual Mennonite Music Festival is held at Bethel College in the
latter part of May. Mennonites come to this event from all parts of Kansas.
Handel s Messiah is sung in English and German by more than 500
voices.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Halstead, Riverside Park, Kit Carson Tree, Halstcad Hospital, 8.9 m. (see Tour
4 A).
Railroad Stations: 135 W. Tecumseh St. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. ;
307 E. ist St. for Missouri Pacific R.R.
Bus Stations: North American Hotel, 3rd and Main Sts., for Greyhound Bus Lines,
Santa Fe Trailways, and Missouri Pacific Bus Line.
Taxis: io0 per person within the city limits.
Accommodations: Two hotels; three tourist camps.
Motion Picture Houses: Three.
Swimming: Forest Park, W. end of Tecumseh St.
Golf: Ottawa Country Club, 0.5 m. E. of N. Main St. on Logan St., 9 holes, greens
fee 5O0.
Annual Events: Eastern Kansas Baptist Assembly, first week in Aug.; Franklin
County Fair, Sept.; Christmas Festival.
OTTAWA (891 alt., 9,563 pop.), seat of Franklin County, is named for
the Ottawa Indians whose reservation once occupied the surrounding
area. Designated a "city of religion and education" by its townsmen a
claim bolstered by 6 public schools, a university, and 23 churches-
Ottawa is also the trade center of a prosperous farming and stock-raising
region.
The city lies in a saucer- like valley around the Marais des Cygnes River
(pronounced merry deseen locally). Its residential section is composed
largely of frame houses, set behind broad lawns, and shaded by mature
elms. Main Street binds the community together physically, by spanning
the river, and economically, by reason of the shops packed tightly along
its south extent.
Ottawa manufactures flour, ice cream, farm machinery, and electric
refrigerators. There are several hatcheries, two mail order printing houses,
a stone-crushing plant, and a foundry and woodwork factory. Car shops
and a division headquarters are maintained by the Santa Fe Railway.
Water and light facilities are municipally owned.
Ottawa had its origin in 1832 when the Ottawa Indians ceded their
Ohio lands to the United States in return for 34,000 acres of what is now
Franklin County. The Government appointed John Tecumseh Jones to
assist the tribe in establishing itself on the new reservation. Jones was a
half-breed Potawatomi who had been graduated by the Baptist Education
Society, from which grew Colgate University, N. Y.
Arriving in Kansas the Ottawa found abundant game, grass, and water,
but the hot dry air the antithesis of the humid climate at their Ohio
reservation caused many to sicken and die. The Reverend Jotham Meeker
of the Shawnee Mission, 60 miles to the northeast, traveled frequently to
the ailing Indians, doctoring them as best he could. Finally, in the sum-
266
OTTAWA 267
mer of 1837 he and his wife moved to the Ottawa reservation and estab
lished the Ottawa Indian Baptist Mission. As described by Meeker, they
made their home in "a rough small cabin, intended for a stable and with
out a chimney, floor, or window." Among the missionary s meager posses
sions was an old Seth Adams press with which, at Shawnee Mission in
[835, he had printed the Shawnee Sun in the Shawnee language (see
NEWSPAPERS).
The Ottawa were a peaceful, intelligent people. Meeker taught them
simple agricultural methods while his wife nursed the sick; together they
nstructed the tribe in spelling, reading, and the gospel. On his press
Meeker printed the Laws Governing the Ottawa Indians, which many of
he younger members of the tribe were soon able to read. Word of
Meeker s work reached neighboring Indians and aroused their curiosity.
Sac and Fox braves, clad in their finest regalia, would creep close to the
nission, listen to the music or the voice of the preacher, and then silently
depart.
John Tecumseh Jones, or, as he was better known, Tauy Jones, was of
great help to the Meekers, and in time he became associated with them
in their missionary work. In 1845 he married Jane Kelly, a white mission
ary. He was subsequently adopted into the Ottawa tribe, largely, it is said,
because of the affection the Indians held for his wife.
When border warfare broke out the Ottawa Indian Baptist Mission
became a headquarters for Free State adherents. Tauy Jones and the Rev
erend Meeker were staunch abolitionists. A two-story hotel that Jones
built near the mission in the 1850*5 was burned by pro-slave sympathizers
in 1856. John Brown, warm friend of Jones, told the Massachusetts Legis
lature of this event in 1857: "I saw it while it was still standing, and
afterwards saw the ruins of the most valuable house and property of a
highly civilized, intelligent, and exemplary Indian, which was burned to
the ground by the ruffians. . . ."
Incoming settlers found the site of Ottawa highly desirable because of
a natural ford at that point across the Marais des Cygnes River. The land
belonged to the Indians, however, and a settlement was not at once estab
lished. In the spring of 1864 I. S. Kalloch, a Baptist preacher, C. C.
Hutchinson, Ottawa Indian Agent, James Wing, Ottawa Chieftain, and
Tauy Jones obtained the desired tract through their positions as members
of the recently formed Ottawa University board of trustees. A town com
pany was promptly organized and the site was surveyed in March 1864.
Five months later the nascent town was designated the seat of Franklin
County. A toll bridge was built above the ford, which, with a sawmill,
Tauy Jones store, and a hostelry known as the Ottawa House, supplied
the economic nucleus of the settlement.
Shortly after its establishment Ottawa was damaged by a cyclone. De
scribing it, an early settler, A. F. Richmond stated, "I could see the
cyclone coming. It looked like a ball of fire and it roared like thunder. It
would go up in the sky and come down again. Whenever it hit the ground
it made explosions like a cannon. There was a long tail on that cyclone
that revolved. It came down and hit the front of our house; took off all
268 CITIES AND TOWNS
the doors and windows in the front, and destroyed all the furniture in the
front room and filled the room with old pieces of bottles, old tin cans, old
worn out shoes and boots, bric-a-brac, pieces of iron, dead cats and dogs. *
A treaty to move the Ottawas to Indian Territory in Oklahoma was
signed on February 23, 1867. As the Indians vacated the region white
settlers flocked in and Ottawa consequently prospered. In 1871 the com
munity voted $60,000 and donated a site valued at $70,000 to assure
the establishment of the machine shops of the Leavenworth, Lawrence
& Galveston Railroad. The shops, built in 1872, employ 200 workers.
Electricity was generated in Ottawa in 1888, less than four years after
New York City s Pearl Street Station first plant in the country to pro
duce electricity for public use had been put in operation. Following a
year of experimentation, the Ottawa plant began supplying power for
public use in 1889. A field of natural gas was discovered near the city in
the opening decade of the present century and harnessed for commercial
use. Several industries were thereafter established; false frame fronts on
Main Street were replaced by brick structures; and by 1910 the population
stood at 7,500.
POINTS OF INTEREST
OTTAWA UNIVERSITY, 9th and Cedar Sts., a co-educational Bap-
tist institution, offers four-year courses in art, music, and science. The
university has 17 instructors and an average enrollment of 400 students.
There are four buildings on the 3O-acre campus, all built of Kansas lime
stone. Owing to a tradition whereby graduating classes donate a tree, a
shrub, or an ivy plant, the buildings are encrusted with vines and the
campus is heavily wooded. A choir composed of students in the Music
Department presents Handel s Messiah annually in December at the First
Baptist Church, 4th and Hickory Sts.
At the first Baptist Convention in Kansas, held at Atchison in 1860,
plans for a college were adopted and the proposed institution, named in
honor of Roger Williams, was chartered by the Territorial Legislature on
February 20, 1860. Tauy Jones subsequently urged that the Ottawas be
admitted to the school. Representatives of the Baptist Church and the
Ottawa tribe accordingly met on December 5, 1860, and worked out a
plan whereby the Ottawas agreed to donate 20,000 acres to Roger Wil
liams University; the trustees agreed to finance the construction of build
ings, to educate fifty Indian children between the ages of 4 and 14 each
year for 30 years, and to thereafter establish ten perpetual scholarships for
Indians. These provisions were incorporated in a treaty on June 24, 1862,
but as the Ottawas were removed to the Oklahoma reservation in 1867, the
provisions of the treaty were never carried out.
Throughout the Civil War no attempts were made to construct the
school. On April 21, 1865, the institution was incorporated and renamed
Ottawa University. Classes were held during 1866 in a temporary build
ing. In the following year the school was closed to await the completion
of its own structure, the present Tauy Jones Hall, which was finished in
1869. Instructions were resumed in May of that year, with only three
OTTAWA 269
Indians in the class of 83 students. The Ottawas held rights in the univer
sity until 1873 when by Act of Congress the remainder of the original
grant of 20,000 acres (about 11,000 acres) were put in Government trust
along with $16,000 obtained through land sales.
TAUY JONES HALL (open during school hours), the oldest build
ing on the campus, is a three-story limestone structure, erected in ih<
It was gutted by fire on January 5, 1876, but the walls remained firm.
In the succeeding months the Reverend Robert Atkinson, president
of the college, hewed walnut logs to rebuild the interior. Aided by the
townspeople of Ottawa, he reroofed the structure and classes were resumed
in 1876. The hall was damaged by a second fire in 1921. Two years later
it was extensively remodeled in keeping with the original design. Six dor
mer windows were replaced and the interior was outfitted with hardwood
floors, beamed ceilings, and walnut doors. The building now houses the
music department and a MUSEUM which contains fossils, minerals, Indian
artifacts, and Kansas memorabilia.
FOREST PARK, W. end of Tecumseh St., an 8o-acre wooded area,
contains playgrounds, tennis courts, horseshoe courts, picnic grounds, and
a swimming pool. Throughout the summer weekly concerts are presented
by the Ottawa Band. The annual Franklin County Fair is held here.
The MEMORIAL GATEWAY at the main entrance to the park was
dedicated on November 3, 1899, in memory of Franklin County citizens
who served in the Spanish-American War with Company K of the 2oth
Kansas Regiment. The ornamental iron gates are supported by octagonal
limestone pillars, 13 feet high. The central pillar is surmounted by a
bronze eagle. The money to build the gateway ($1,600) was provided by
popular subscription.
The MAIN STREET BRIDGE, Main St. at the Marais des Cygnes
River, a steel and concrete structure built in 1925, is arched above the ford
that was used during the 1850*5 and i86o s by soldiers, settlers, traders,
and freighters following the Osage Trail. While crossing the river at this
point in 1856, Cyrus Curran, Indian trader, turned to the members of his
parry and said: "I ve been across this ford a good many times and I never
cross but that I think that some day there ll be a town built here."
The FRANKLIN COUNTY COURTHOUSE, SE. corner 4th and
Main Sts., is a three-story structure of red brick and Kansas limestone.
The blue slate roof has turrets at the corners, with intermediate gables and
a cupola at each end of the apex. The west cupola above the Main Street
entrance contains an illuminated clock with four dials. The east cupola
contains a bell which strikes the hours. At the apex of the west gable is a
statue symbolizing Justice. The courthouse was designed by George P.
Washburn & Son, and completed in 1893 at a cost of $46,535. Wash-
burn, one of the most prolific and talented of Kansan architects in the
1890*5, also designed the courthouse at Atchison.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Indian Burial Ground, 3 m.: Site of Old Baptist Mission, 3 m.; Tauy Jones
House, 2J m.; Chippewa Burial Ground, 6 m. (see TOUT 12).
-f<<<<<<<<<<< &->- >>>>>>>>>>>
anna
Railroad Stations: Union Station, 400 N. i3th St., for Union Pacific R.R., Missouri
Pacific R.R., Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry., and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific
Ry.
Bus Stations: Santa Fe Ave. and Ash St. for Cardinal and Santa Fe; 230 N. Santa
Fe Ave. for Southwestern Greyhound, and Interstate Transit Lines.
Buses: (Street System) From intersection on Santa Fe and Iron Aves. to N., S., E.,
and SW. city limits. Fare, 50 with one transfer privilege.
Airport: Municipal, 2.5 m. SE. on E. Crawford St. No scheduled service.
Taxis: Minimum fare, io0.
Traffic Regulations: Traffic lights in business zone; stop signs at intersections with
boulevards; no one-way streets.
Accommodations: Ten hotels; five tourist camps.
Information Service: Chamber of Commerce, SW. corner Ash and 5th Sts., Kansas
Motor Club, Lamer Hotel, Santa Fe Ave. and Ash St.
Radio Stations: KSAL (1500 kc.) ; KFBI (1050 kc.).
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Memorial Hall, 9th and Ash Sts., for con
certs. Five moving picture houses.
Swimming: Municipal pool in Oakdale Park, E. end Mulberry St.
Golf: Northview Country Club, 2 m. E. on Iron Ave., thence 2 m. S. on a country
road, 18 holes, greens fee 5O0; Municipal Golf Course, 6 m. N. on US 81, 9 holes,
greens fee 250.
Annual Events: Salina Racing Association, pacing, trotting, and running races, Ken
wood Park, E. end of Prescott Ave., Aug.; 4-H Club Fair, Agricultural Hall, Ken
wood Park, ist week in Sept.
SALINA (1,220 alt., 20,155 PP-)> sea ^ ^ Saline County, lies in a basin
four miles southwest of the confluence of the Saline and Smoky Hill
Rivers. The main part of the city, extending across tablelands to the north
and south, is shaped like a huge block "I." The Smoky Hill River loops
through the east side of the "I," intersecting an arm of the city which
reaches to the crest of low hills on the east.
The inner framework of the "I" consists of Santa Fe Avenue, an excep
tionally broad thoroughfare that terminates north at St. Johns Military
School, and south at the Kansas Wesleyan University. The south segment
of this avenue is lined with rambling mansions built in the 1890*5. Many
of the structures are occupied by their first owners. The central segment of
the avenue is walled with business structures which range from two to ten
stories in height. A short distance north of the business district Santa Fe
Avenue is crossed by the main line tracks of three railroads. Grain eleva
tors and flour mills tower east of the avenue, bordering the tracks.
Salina s streets intersect at regular right angles except in the Highland
Court section at the southwest corner of the city, and the fashionable
residential area on the hills at the east. Curved drives and "Y" -mouthed
270
s
SANTA FE AVENUE, SALINA
boulevards in these neighborhoods are flanked by close-cropped lawns on
which stand trim houses of contemporary design. In the body of the city
the main east-west streets are continued over the river on concrete bridges.
At other points the streets follow the contour of the stream.
Salina is the virtual metropolis of central Kansas. In the heart of the
hard wheat country, the city is a trading and recreational center for thou
sands of farmers. On Saturday nights the business sections on Iron and
Santa Fe Avenues are ablaze with neon signs. Rows of dusty motor cars
are nosed in at the curbs and groups of rural shoppers crowd the side
walks.
Wheat is the alpha and omega of the region. Remarks about the
weather are not mere tokens of conversation for drought or prolonged rain
may be the difference between a lean and fat purse. In June wheat becomes
"The Wheat" of anxious inquiry. Under the brassy sun the yellowish
stalks droop and turn golden. Blue-overalled men go into the fields and a
burnished stream of grain pours into Salina. Often the storage bins are
filled to overflowing so that the grain is piled on the ground like sand.
Salina ranks third as a flour milling center in Kansas and fifth among
the cities of the United States (1937). The five local mills have a daily
capacity of 10,000 barrels of flour. The granaries and elevators can hold
272 CITIES AND TOWNS
seven million bushels of wheat, enough so townsmen boast to supply a
loaf of bread to each person in the United States. Salina also manufactures
flour mill machinery, furnaces, gravity pumps, cement products, bricks
and tile, playground equipment, and agricultural implements. Two large
oil fields are within forty miles of the city.
Salina is the home town of Guy T. Helvering, present U. S. Commis
sioner of Internal Revenue (1938), and a former mayor of the city.
William A. Phillips, a Scotchman who had come to Kansas in 1855 as
a special correspondent for the New York Tribune, journeyed through the
unsettled section of the territory in 1857, searching for an attractive town-
site. Of the places he saw he was best pleased with the site at the point
where the Smoky Hill River twists sharply from its southern course and
flows to the east. In 1858 Phillips returned to the region, accompanied by
two fellow Scotchmen, James Muir and A. M. Campbell, and staked out a
townsite.
Saline County was organized in February 1859. In the following month
the Territorial legislature chartered a town company composed of Phillips,
Muir, Campbell, and two newcomers, D. L. Phillips and A. C. Spilman.
A. W. Phillips established a store and A. M. Campbell began operating a
free ferry across the river. The settlement was at first dependent on trade
with occasional Indian hunting parties, but, as the westernmost post on
the Smoky Hill trail, it throve in 1860 as a "jumping off" place for gold-
hunters traveling to Pike s Peak.
The Civil War stopped both the westbound traffic and the growth of
Salina. W. A. Phillips promptly enlisted with the Union Army. In 1862
he was made colonel of a regiment composed of Cherokee Indians. Later
he served as attorney for that tribe. In 1873 he was elected to the U. S.
House of Representatives.
In the course of the war Salina was twice jolted from its lethargy. In
early 1862 word was received that hostile Indians were preparing to mas
sacre the twelve families at the settlement. A stockade was hastily built.
The Indians, presumably deterred by this defense, did not attack. But in
the autumn of the same year Salina was caught unawares by twenty bush
whackers who robbed the settlers of their food, horses, munitions, and
tobacco.
At the close of the war W. A. Phillips returned to Salina and laid plans
to stimulate its growth. Through his efforts the Union Pacific Railroad
was extended to the settlement in 1867. J. G. McCoy alert livestock dealer,
visited Salina and proposed that it become the terminus of the cattle
drives. Fearing that the "Texers" and their droves of mossy horns"
would disorganize their community, the citizens rejected his offer. McCoy
thereupon departed in a pique to Abilene, a dreary cluster of huts which
he subsequently transformed into one of the great western "cow towns."
In commenting on Salina McCoy declared that it was "a very small dead
place, consisting of about one dozen log huts, low small, rude affairs,
four-fifths of which were covered with dirt for roofing. . . . The business
of the burg was conducted in two small rooms, mere log huts."
The development of Salina was thereafter greatly accelerated by the
SALINA 273
railroad. Josiah Copley, correspondent for the Gazette of Pittsburgh, Pa.,
visited the settlement several months after McCoy and reported that the
population had increased to almost two thousand. Large groups of settlers
began to enter Saline County. A colony of 60 Swedes from Galesburg,
Illinois, arrived in 1868; 200 homesteaders from Ohio came in 1869; and
75 ex-residents of Henry County, Illinois, arrived in 1870.
Despite the inhabitants previous rejection of the cattle trade, Salina
became a minor center of that industry in 1872. Gun-play and carousing
were sternly suppressed, however, and the community remained compara
tively placid. In 1874 tne cattle trade gravitated farther west and Salina s
"cow town" era ended. The resultant economic gap was more than filled
by agriculture. Great crops of wheat began to pour into Salina during the
1870*5. A $75,000 steam-powered flour mill was built at the town in
1878.
In the early part of 1874 Dr. E. R. Switzer of Salina obtained alfalfa
seed from California for 50 cents a pound and planted it on his farm.
Green shoots came up, only to be destroyed by drought and grasshoppers.
Dr. Switzer considered the experiment ended. But rain fell in September
and the alfalfa grew again. "I concluded," Dr. Switzer later said, "that a
grass that would go through drought and grasshopper plague was the
thing for Kansas." The doctor thereafter pioneered in introducing alfalfa
to Kansas farmers. From Saline County the legume spread outward to
become in 1935 the State s fourth largest crop.
By 1880 Salina was assured of a place among the principal cities of
Kansas. Its population exceeded 3,500 and its industries included 3 flour
mills, 6 grain elevators, a carriage and wagon factory, and an agricultural
implement works. Between 1885-90 three railroads were built through
the community.
Four-fifths of Salina was inundated by the Smoky Hill River in 1903.
The inhabitants had ample time to retreat to the heights east of the city
without loss of life. In June 1938 heavy rains again sent the Smoky beyond
its banks and a small section of the city was flooded. Property damage
was negligible and no lives were lost.
POINTS OF INTEREST
OAKDALE PARK, entered at the N. by Oakdale Drive and at the
W. by the E. end of Mulberry St., a 5O-acre tract shaded by elm and
walnut trees, contains a swimming pool, tennis court, picnic grounds, and
CLAFLIN HALL, an open air auditorium. At the North entrance is the
SPANISH WAR AND G. A. R. MEMORIAL GATE, erected by Saline County
at a cost of $13,000. It was designed by George H. Honig and completed
in 1918. On the marble columns beside the gate are heroic bronze figures
of a Civil War soldier and a Spanish-American War soldier.
KENWOOD PARK, entered by the foot bridge at the E. end of Oak-
wood Drive or by the E. end of Prescott Ave., a po-acre tract within
a bend of the Smoky Hill River, is the site of the annual meet of the
Saline Racing Association, and the 4-H Club Fair (see ANNUAL
274 CITIES AND TOWNS
EVENTS). The 4-H Club Fair is held in AGRICULTURAL HALL, a large
brick pavilion built by Saline County at a cost of $65,000.
ST. JOHN MILITARY SCHOOL, Santa Fe and Otis Aves., an
Episcopal school with an average enrollment of 100 cadets, offers elemen
tary and college preparatory courses for boys. The school was established
in 1887 at which time VAIL HALL a four-story brick and stone structure
of modified Gothic-Romanesque design was built. An octagonal tower is
attached at the west wing and a square with pyramidal roof tower rises
three-stories above the east wing.
KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, Claflin St. and Santa Fe Ave.,
is a Methodist Episcopal institution with an average enrollment of
400 students. The university, established in 1886, is housed in five modern
structures on a 4o-acre campus. At the center of the group is the HALL OF
PIONEERS, which houses the administrative offices, classrooms, and Sams
Memorial Chapel. A two-story brick and stone structure with Gothic
detail, designed by Zerbe and Wilmarth, it was dedicated to the pioneers
of Kansas in 1926. Carnegie Science Hall, built in 1908, houses the uni
versity library and museum. The LIBRARY (open 7:45-12, 1:25-5:30,
7-10 weekdays during the school year) has 20,000 volumes. The MUSEUM
(open same hours as the library) contains botanical, zoological, and geo
logical specimens.
MARYMOUNT COLLEGE, E. end of Iron Ave., a Catholic institu
tion for girls with an average enrollment of 200, offers four year accred
ited courses in art, music, science, and home economics. The college was
established in 1922 by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The main building occu
pying a knoll overlooking Salina, is a three-story E-shaped structure of
stone, castellated and buttressed in the Gothic style. The central wing
houses the Immaculate Conception Chapel. The two flanking wings con
tain the college offices, classrooms, and dormitories. On the walls of the
GREEN ROOM, the main reception room, are paintings of The Holy Fam
ily and John and Jesus by Elizabeth Sirani, seventeenth century Florentine
artist.
MEMORIAL HALL, 9th and Ash Sts., a municipal auditorium, is a
three-story brick structure trimmed with concrete. It was designed by
C. W. Shaver and dedicated in 1922 as a "Memorial to our Veterans of
all Wars." The auditorium seats 4,000.
The SALINA PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 10-9 weekdays, 3-5 Sun.
during winter; 9-1, 6-9:30 weekdays during summer), SW. corner 8th
St. and Iron Ave., is a two-story brick and stone structure with neo-classic
detail. The original building, completed in 1903, was designed by Fred
Gum of Salina. An addition built in 1928 was designed by Ben Byrnes of
Salina. The library contains 38,000 volumes, five paintings by Birger
Sandzen (see ART), and a valuable collection of old magazines and
books, among them a complete set of McGuffey s readers. On the second
floor is an HISTORICAL MUSEUM (open 2-5 and 7-9 Mon.-Fri.; 2-5 1st
and 3rd Sun. of month), which contains pioneer memorabilia and a refer
ence library of more than 500 volumes.
CHRIST CATHEDRAL (Episcopal), 134 S. 8th St., cathedral of the
SALINA 275
Diocese of Salina, is a native limestone structure of English Gothic
design. The altar is of Carthage marble, with reredos of Silverdale lime
stone. The central tower contains n bell chimes, donated by Mrs. A. L.
Claflin in memory of her husband, a pioneer resident. The interior wood
work of black oak was carved by members of the Lang family of
Oberammergau, Bavaria. The cathedral was designed by Henry Macomb
and Charles M. Burns of Philadelphia, and dedicated in 1907 as a memo
rial to Hermon Griswold Batterson, a missionary of the Episcopal Church
Funds for the building were donated by Mrs. Hermon Griswold Batterson,
of New York City.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Indian Burial Pit, 4-5 m. (see Tour 3), Salemsborg, 16.2 m., Coronado Heights,
19-1 m. (see Tour 9)-
<<<<<<<< <*> >>>>>
Railroad Stations: 5th and Holliday Sts. for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. ; 701
N. Kansas Ave. for Union Pacific R.R. and Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. ; 501
Adams St. for Missouri Pacific R.R.
Bus Stations: Union Bus Depot, 123 W. 6th St. for Missouri Pacific and Santa Fe
Trailways, Capitol Highway Stages; Union Bus Terminal, 120 W. 6th St. for Grey
hound and Union Pacific Bus Lines.
Airport: Municipal Airport, 3600 Sardou, 3 m. NE. of capitol N. of US 40, no
scheduled service.
Taxis: 250 for first two miles, io0 each additional % mile.
Buses: Fare 80, tokens 2 for 150.
Traffic Regulations: Lights at principal intersections in business section. Stop signs
on arterial streets. Speed limit, 35 miles per hour on W. 6th Ave. (US 40) and
W. loth Ave., 30 miles per hour on Topeka Blvd. Bridge, 25 miles per hour on
all other streets. Parking meters, 50 for one hour, on Kansas Ave., parking re
strictions on other streets in business district plainly indicated by signs. No one
way streets.
Accommodations: Twenty-two hotels, 2 for Negroes; 10 tourist camps.
Information Service: Kansas Motor Club, Elks Bldg., yth and Jackson Sts.
Radio Station: WIBW (580 kc.)
Theaters and Motion Picture Houses: Grand Theater, 615 Jackson St., occasional
road shows; eleven motion picture houses, one for Negroes.
Swimming: Municipal pools, Gage, Ripley, and Garfield Parks.
Golf: White Lakes Club, 1 m. S. on US 75, i8-hole, greens fee 250. Washburn
Golf Club, 1 7th St. and Jewel Ave., 9-hole, sand greens, greens fee 250. Topeka
Country Club, 26th and Lincoln Sts., i8-hole, greens fee $i.
Tennis: Municipal courts in Gage, Garfield, Ripley, Edgewood, Westlawn, Euclid,
and Chesney Parks.
Boxing and Wrestling: American Legion Stadium, 6th St. and Gage Blvd.
Football: Moore Bowl, Washburn College, i7th St. and College Ave.
Annual Events: Kansas Day Club, Jan. 29 (Republican); Washington Day Club
banquet, Feb. 22 (Democratic) ; State High School Basketball Tournament, March;
Mexican Fiesta, July; Community 4th of July celebration, Gage Park; Kansas Free
Fair, Sept. ; State Horseshoe Pitching Contest, Sept. ; State Chess Tournament, Sept. ;
Civic Concert Series, Oct. to May; Community Forum Lecture Series, Nov. to
March; Community Christmas Tree.
TOPEKA (886 alt., 64,120 pop.), capital of Kansas, seat of Shawnee
County, and third city in population, is bisected by the Kansas, or Kaw
River, as it is more familiarly known. On the north side of the stream the
city extends across the fertile Kaw Valley to the slope of a low range of
hills. On the south it spreads over a ridge that divides the watersheds
of the Kaw River and Shunganunga Creek, extending across the creek bot
toms, and up the gradual slope of another range of low glacial hills.
Kansas Avenue, the main street, extends from the northern to the south
ern limits of the city, lined for almost half its length with business houses.
276
TOPEKA 277
In the territory adjacent to the river, extending across a level expanse of
bottom, is the principal industrial and wholesale district. Here are four
meat-packing plants, wholesale houses, flour mills, and small factories.
This section, the oldest part of the town, was laid out parallel to the river
banks, northeast, southwest, while the streets of the newer addition follow
the cardinal points of the compass.
South from Third Street to Fifth Street, Kansas Avenue ascends the
slope of the divide, bordered by small shops, hotels, motion picture
theatres, and second-hand stores. Concentrated between Fifth and Tenth
Streets is the modern retail business and professional district. Quincy and
Jackson Streets, flanking the Avenue on either side, show increasing busi
ness and commercial development. The Avenue s architecture varies from
the ornate, heavy-corniced structures built in the 8o s and 90*5 to the
modern 14-story National Bank of Topeka Building. Construction is pre
dominantly of brick. At Tenth Street the commercial aspect of Kansas
Avenue begins to change. At Eleventh Street it enters a residential section
built in the 1890*5.
Topeka Boulevard, once Topeka s "Park Avenue," is lined with preten
tious mansions built between 1880 and 1915, but the motor age has caused
the exclusive residential district to move west until it is nearly three miles
from the business section.
Most of the newer homes are built in the additions on the south and
west. Many of the pretentious Victorian mansions are now comfortable
rooming and boarding houses, within walking distance of the business dis
trict. Tall shade trees, forming cool green archways above Topeka s wide
streets, give the city its chief claim to civic beauty. The town founders,
finding that land was cheap and shade was scarce, platted the thorough
fares lavishly and lined them with elm, hackberry, walnut, and maple
trees. Each succeeding generation of home-builders has carefully preserved
this tradition.
Westboro, a restricted residential district in the southwest, is the only
section of the city that does not follow the formal street plan having been
laid out in lanes, courts, drives, and terraces. Its homes follow many styles
of architecture, the Dutch and Georgian Colonial predominating.
Descendants of the Negro "Exodusters" who came to Topeka in 1879-
1880 now number approximately 8,000 (1938). The oldest and most
compact Negro community is "Tennessee Town" established by five hun
dred Exodusters in 1880. This district extends west from Buchanan Street
to Washburn Avenue and south from Tenth to Huntoon Streets, and it is
inhabited by more than two thousand Negroes. When "Tennessee Town"
was settled it was west of the city limits but the town has grown around it
until it is now almost in the center of Topeka s West Side. Today, its
streets are paved and its homes are neat one-story frame structures. There
are other Negro residential districts in North Topeka and in areas along
the railroad tracks. The city has three Negro elementary schools; Negroes
are represented in most of the trades and professions.
While the white residents are largely of Anglo-Saxon stock, there are
scattered groups of Russo-Germans, Swedes, and Mexicans. The Russo-
2jS CITIES AND TOWNS
Germans work in the Santa Fe shop, and live in a little settlement in North
Topeka known as "Little Russia." Mexicans are concentrated near the rail
road yards and are employed in the Santa Fe shops or as section laborers.
Topeka s excellent transportation facilities and its position in a prosper
ous agricultural area have made it an important distribution and trade cen
ter. Streets in the retail districts are thronged with shoppers from the sur
rounding countryside. Before the motor age, when farmers drove into
town, they were provided with hitching posts along broad Kansas Ave
nue; and wagon and feed yards catered to their convenience. Today their
automobiles, dusty and serviceable, and usually carrying produce, are
parked alongside the shining city cars on "the Avenue" while their owners
shop or transact business at the courthouse. Parking meters, insuring the
motorist an hour s parking privilege for five cents, have replaced the old
hitching posts and the feed yards have given way to modern "one- stop"
motor service stations.
In 1842, two French-Canadians, Joseph and Louis Pappan, the latter a
progenitor of the late Charles Curtis, married Kaw Indian half-breeds and
settled on Kaw lands in what is now Shawnee County. They established a
ferry across the Kaw River at the site of Topeka which they operated until
the stream was bridged in 1857. The Pappans were probably the first white
settlers in the region.
Topeka, however, owes its existence to Col. Cyrus K. Holliday, a young
Pennsylvanian who came to Kansas Territory in 1854 with $20,000 and
an urge to build a railroad. He interested a group of former New England
capitalists in his proposition, and accompanied by a few of the pioneers
walked into Lawrence one day in 1854 to explain his plan to Dr. Charles
Robinson, agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. The future
rail magnates had made the 4 5 -mile journey from Kansas City on foot.
Robinson was interested and, failing to convince his visitors that Law
rence was an ideal site for the railroad center, suggested that they take a
trip up the Kaw to pick out a spot. Holliday agreed and the group set out.
Twenty-one miles west along the river was the thriving village of Tecum-
seh, the initial stop. Tecumseh business men, however, appeared to have
heard of Holliday s $20,000 and they asked an enormous price for the site.
This display of avarice cost Tecumseh dearly. The frugal Yankees pro
ceeded up the river five miles to the site of Topeka where they formed a
town company, after closing a deal for a tract of land with Enoch Chase, a
local land owner who had purchased large tracts from the Kaw Indians.
Holliday was elected president of the company and the Lawrence dele
gation took stock, as did Chase. The company met in a log cabin Decem
ber 5, 1854, to complete organization. Holliday proposed to call the town
Webster after Daniel Webster, but the others wanted to give it something
with a local flavor. After much discussion the Reverend S. Y. Lum sug
gested Topeka, an Omaha Indian word meaning a good place to dig "po
tatoes" (the Indians designated all edible roots as potatoes).
The following year, due to the efforts of Dr. Robinson, a large contin
gent of New Englanders arrived and Topeka grew into a sizable settle
ment. Before another year passed Colonel Holliday and his associates had
TOPEKA 279
completed plans for the construction of the railroad that became the Santa
Fe. Topeka thrived and became a rival of Tecumseh for the seat of Shaw-
nee County. The rivalry was that of a Free State and a pro-slavery com
munity, since Tecumseh was settled by Missouri slave owners.
The first Kansas constitution was framed by a convention of Free State
men who met in Topeka in 1855. With only Free State men voting, the
document was quickly approved, provisional officials and a legislature were
chosen. Members of the legislature, however, were arrested by United
States troops when they convened at Topeka, July 4, and the "Topeka
Government" was speedily overthrown.
In 1857, the year the city was incorporated, the first bridge across the
Kaw was completed. High water carried it away the following summer
and Tecumseh residents chortled as the wreckage floated by on its way
downstream. It was Topeka s turn to laugh a few months later when it
won over Tecumseh in a county seat election, October 4, 1858.
Dr. Robinson returned to Lawrence after the details for the founding
of Topeka had been completed. The Kansas Constitution, adopted at
Wyandotte, under which the Territory was admitted to the Union, pro
vided for an election to select the capital city. Topeka and Lawrence were
aspirants, and Robinson, a candidate for Governor, was believed by the
people of Lawrence to favor the selection of their town. Consequently,
they supported the doctor. Robinson and Gen. Jim Lane, however, threw
their influence behind the Topeka movement. The result was that Robin
son was elected and Topeka chosen as the capital of the new State.
Meanwhile, Holliday unfolded his plan. He presented to the State a
tract of the townsite to be used as a capital park. He promoted the Atchi-
son, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway which in 1869 started building westward
from Topeka, and had the general offices and machine shops of that sys
tem established in Topeka in 1878. Holliday s name, appropriately, is pre
served in Holliday Street on which stands the Santa Fe depot, and in the
Cyrus K. Holliday Junior High School on Topeka s east side, which is at
tended by sons and daughters of Santa Fe shop employees.
Although the growth of Topeka and the State was retarded by the
drought of 1860 and the ensuing period of the Civil War, Topeka kept
pace with the phenomenal revival and period of growth that Kansas en
joyed from the close of the war in 1865 until 1870. A town of 700 in
habitants in 1862, it had grown to more than 5,000 in 1870.
In October 1864, Topekans erected a stockade of cottonwood logs for
protection against Price s raid. The flimsy roofless structure was derisively
called "Fort Folly" by citizens who pointed out that it would be scant
protection against artillery. The Second Regiment of the Kansas State Mili
tia, however, engaged in a bloody skirmish with Price s forces at the Big
Blue River near Kansas City, Missouri. The regiment, composed of men
from Topeka and Shawnee County under the command or Col. George
Veale, met a vastly superior enemy force on October 22. Although forced
to retreat, the regiment inflicted severe losses and helped to check Price s
advance. The Topeka battery, attached to the regiment as Company K, took
up a position in a lane near the crossing of the river where they repulsed
280
CITIES AND TOWNS
TOPEKA
281
TOPEKA
282 CITIES AND TOWNS
two spirited cavalry charges but succumbed to a third. Eight men were
killed, four wounded, and ten, including Captain Ross Burns, were taken
prisoner. Burns stood by his piece until he was clubbed into insensibility
and dragged from the field.
During the late i88o s Topeka passed through a boom period that ended
in disaster. There was a vast speculation on town lots. One promoter ad
vertised in foreign newspapers that his lots were 12 miles from the post
office, but his description of Topeka was that of a city on the scale of Chi
cago. Subdivisions were platted at points several miles west of the present
city limits. In 1889 the bubble burst and many investors were ruined. To
peka, however, doubled in population during the period and was able to
weather the depressions of the 90*5.
In the spring of 1903 a flood of the Kaw River inundated North To
peka, which lies in the valley. Weeks of continuous rain throughout the
watershed transformed the Kaw into an angry torrent five miles across.
Breaking through its low banks the Kaw cut a new channel through
North Topeka and on the south side the water rose as far as Second Street.
Hundreds were marooned in their homes and 29 persons were drowned.
Property damage amounted to $2,288,000. North Topeka was an indus
trial section with a number of large flour mills and lumber yards. Indians
had warned the early settlers not to build a city on the banks of the river,
recalling a great flood of 1844.
High water in 1908, 1923, and 1935, created uneasiness among resi
dents of North Topeka, but the dikes constructed a few years after the
1903 flood prevented a repetition of the disaster.
Having survived the depressions of the 1890*5, and the flood period,
Topeka welcomed with enthusiasm the new motor age. The Topeka State
Journal on April 3, 1911, reported: "Work is progressing rapidly in tear
ing down the old Culp livery barn at 508 Quincy Street, preparatory to
the erection of an undertaking establishment. Automobile license No. 627
was issued today." By 1920 the motor had replaced the horse in city trans
port and the city fire department was motorized. During the next 1 5 years
motor buses gradually replaced the old trolley cars on Topeka s streets, two
new hotels were opened, and the city definitely had entered the modern era.
Today, the city is an insurance center with home offices of seven life in
surance companies, two fire insurance companies, and one crop insurance
company. Also of importance in its economic background is the printing
industry, with four large independent plants in addition to the one main
tained by the State. Topeka s largest single industry, however, is the Santa
Fe Railway, which maintains repair shops and general offices and furnishes
employment to 5,000 Topekans.
POINTS OF INTEREST
i. MEL AN BRIDGE, Kansas Ave. at Kansas River, between Crane and
Curtis Streets, is a concrete arch bridge, reenforced with steel, constructed
in 1895. It consists of six spans and is 900 feet in length. Two railroad
bridges and the streetcar bridge were washed out in the 1903 flood, but
TOPEKA 283
the Melan Bridge withstood the high waters, although both approaches
were destroyed. Prior to 1938 it was the only connecting link between
North Topeka and the south side.
2. The TOPEKA BOULEVARD BRIDGE, Topeka Ave. at Kansas
River, between W. 2nd and W. Gordon Sts., was dedicated August 27,
: 938. This 4,4OO-foot steel and concrete structure, designed by Robert J.
^ustice, of the State Highway Department, is the longest bridge in the
State highway system and was built at a cost of $1,500,000 with the State,
the city, and the Federal Government sharing the expense. A PWA grant
matched State funds for construction of the central span and WPA shared
the cost of the two approaches, which eliminate railroad grade crossings.
The bridge contains the largest continuous girder plate ever built in the
United States, a span 893 feet long, resting on piers and without an ex
pansion joint. The bridge has eliminated the bottle neck that was created
by the necessity of routing all north-south traffic across the old Kansas
Avenue bridge.
3. The SITE OF FIRST BUILDING, NW. corner Kansas Ave. and
cst St., is commemorated by a bronze marker on the front of the Poehler
Mercantile Building. It was a log cabin built by four of the town founders,
December 3, 1854.
4. CONSTITUTION HALL, 429 Kansas Ave., with the principal
facade remodeled, is, as indicated by a marker on the sidewalk, the orig-
nal two-story stone building erected in 1855 in which the "Topeka Con
stitution" for the State of Kansas was written. Today it is occupied by
offices and a jewelry store and differs little in appearance from the other
square brick front buildings in the block.
5. The FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL, SW. corner $th and Quincy Sts.,
;i four-story brick structure with Mansard roof, designed in the manner of
:he French Second Empire, was for many years Topeka s leading hotel. It
was built in 1870. On January 22, 1872, Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, re
turning from a buffalo hunt in the western part of the State, was guest of
honor at a banquet given here by Gov. James M. Harvey and the Kansas
legislature. The Grand Duke s party included officers of the Russian Im
perial Navy. American visitors of note were Generals Phillip H. Sheridan
and George A. Custer.
6. The CAPITOL BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATION
BUILDING (1924), NE. corner 6th St. and Kansas Ave., designed by
George Grant Elmslie of Chicago, is not based upon any traditional style
of architecture. The building is constructed of tan brick, polished granite,
terra cotta, and reenforced concrete. The decorative sculptural terra cotta
is the work of Emil Zettler of Chicago. In the panel over the main en
trance is symbolized the American home, and the agricultural and indus
trial activities that support the homes of Kansas. Figures on the south side
of the building symbolize Kansas and its progress.
7. The NATIONAL BANK OF TOPEKA, NW. corner 6th St. and
Kansas Ave., a 1 4-story structure, is Topeka s tallest office building. It was
designed by Thomas W. Williamson & Company of Topeka, in the
neoclassic style of architecture and completed in 1932. Materials used in
284 CITIES AND TOWNS
the construction are white Indiana limestone, polished granite, and steel.
The entrance to the bank is finished in antique travertine trimmed with
bronze.
8. The SITE OF OLD STOCKADE, NW. corner 6th St. and Kansas
Ave., is marked by a plate on the sidewalk in front of the National Bank
Building. Called "Fort Folly" by doubting citizens, the roofless, log
structure was erected in 1864 as protection against Confederate raiders
under Price.
9. The CAPPER PUBLICATIONS BUILDING (open 8-5 weekdays),
SE. corner 8th and Jackson Sts., owned and operated by Arthur Capper,
senior United States Senator from Kansas, is the home office and pub
lishing plant of several farm publications of national circulation, and of
the Topeka Daily Capital, a morning newspaper. Completed in 1909, the
three-story graystone building adorned with Corinthian columns, is of
French Renaissance style. Holland and Squires of Topeka were the archi
tects. The Capital achieved attention in 1900 when its editor, Maj. J. K.
Hudson, placed the editorial policy of the paper under the direction of
Dr. Charles M. Sheldon, prominent Topeka minister, for one week. Dr.
Sheldon, in his first editorial said: "The editor of the Capital asked me
to assume entire charge of the paper for one week and edit it as a Chris
tian newspaper."
Dr. Sheldon, during his short tenure in the editorial sanctum of the
Capital, eliminated all news of crime, prize fights, and scandal, and pub
lished columns in support of the prohibition movement. After noting the
response to Sheldon s "Christian" newspaper, publishers generally were in
agreement that there was no demand for this type of publication.
10. The STATE JOURNAL BUILDING (open 8-5 weekdays), SE.
corner Kansas Ave. and 8th St., a classic two-story edifice of white stone
and terra cotta, was designed by James E. Holland of Topeka. The late
Frank P. McLennan, publisher of the State Journal from 1885 until his
death in 1933 directed the designer of the building to make it as nearly
as possible a replica of the Herald Tribune Building in New York, N. Y.
Henry J. Allen, former Governor and United States Senator, is its piesent
editor (1938).
11. MEMORIAL BUILDING (open 8-5 weekdays), NE. corner loth
and Jackson Sts., is a four-story structure of white marble designed by the
late Charles H. Chandler, State architect. It is of the French Renaissance
style. The cornerstone was laid September 27, 1911 by President Taft and
the building was dedicated May 27, 1914, to the soldiers and sailors of
Kansas. It contains the offices of the State Historical Society and of the
Kansas Department of the American Legion, the Spanish War Veterans,
and the Grand Army of the Republic.
The NEWSPAPER SECTION (open), on the first floor, contains more
than 42,000 bound volumes of Kansas newspapers dating from 1854. A
total of 725 Kansas newspapers and periodicals are received for filing
( I 937)-
In the ART COLLECTION (open) on the first floor is the Philip Billard
Memorial, Flight, a 4-ft. statue by Merrell Gage, formerly of Topeka. It
TOPEKA 285
was presented to the Historical Society by the Topeka Rotary Club in
memory of Lieut. Philip Billard of Topeka, who was killed in line of duty
near Issoudon, France, July 24, 1918. Billard was the first Topekan to
own and operate an airplane.
The STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY (open), on the second floor, contains
a collection of newspaper clippings, atlases, and historical reference books.
The MUSEUM (open 8-12; 1-5 weekdays), third and fourth floors, con
tains the Bower Archeological Collection; the Perkins Mineral Collection;
the F. L. Sexton collection of sea shells, and the Goss Collection of birds.
In the historical section are numerous articles of interest including a sword
found in western Kansas on the handle of which is inscribed the name of
Captain Juan Gallego, one of Coronado s band; a drop of the blood of
Abraham Lincoln, which fell on a Ford s Theater program; two original
sod plows invented in Kansas; and the doors of the house of represent
atives that were smashed during the Populist uprising in 1893. A recent
acquisition is the airplane in which Phil Billard made some of his early
flights over the city in 1915 and 1916.
12. KANSAS STATE PRINTING PLANT (open 8:30-5 weekdays),
SW. corner loth and Jackson Sts., housed in a three-story building of
brick and stone on State-owned property was erected in 1906.
The plant is equipped with one perforating press, two high-speed auto
matic presses, six cylinder presses, two open feed presses, and two high
speed envelope machines. Approximately 200 men are regularly employed
and the plant has a normal daily output of 85,000 pieces of printed matter.
During the biennial sessions of the State legislature the force is increased
to 300 to meet the increased volume of work and the plant is operated 24
hours a day, production increasing to 250,000 pieces of printed matter
daily. The plant also publishes text books used in the public schools of
Kansas.
13. The KANSAS STATE CAPITOL (open 8:30-5 weekdays), is in
the center of a ten-acre landscaped park covering a square extending from
8th St. to loth St. and W. from Jackson St. to Harrison St. The only
motor drive entering the ground is an extension of W. 9th St. Long curv
ing asphalt walks lead up to the north and south entrances from Van
Buren St. The west driveway, with its entrance at 9th and Harrison Sts.,
is used only by pedestrians.
The design or the Kansas Capitol is based upon that of the Capitol at
Washington, D. C. The plan is composed of four wings, extended in the
form of a Greek cross with a large rotunda at the center. These elements
are somewhat lacking in proportion and uniformity of design owing to
the fact that they were constructed at different times and designed by
different architects. Construction of the east wing was begun October 17,
1866, from plans submitted by John G. Haskell and E. Townsend Mix of
Lawrence. It was occupied in December 1869. Its classic hexastyle portico,
supported by fluted Corinthian columns, has a long flight of granite steps
leading up to the main entrance at the second floor. The limestone walls
of the central wing on either side of the portico are adorned with pilasters
of the same order. Stone used in the construction of this wing was
286 CITIES AND TOWNS
quarried near Junction City (see Tour 3); the rotunda and the other
wings are of Silverdale limestone (see Tour 10). The west wing was
constructed in 1880 and is a replica of the east wing.
Work on the north and south wings and the rotunda began in 1883,
but it was not until twenty years later that the completed building was
officially accepted by the State. Like the older sections, the north and south
wings are approached by flights of granite steps and have the main en
trance at the second floor beneath a Corinthian portico. The pediment on
each portico was blocked out in preparation for the carving of symbolic
figures, but, although a sculptor prepared models for this work, he could
not reach an agreement with the State, and the pediments remained un
adorned. The best stone carving of the exterior is on the north wing
where the delicate Corinthian detail was skillfully executed under the
direction of James Halderman.
The rotunda with its lofty dome rising to a height of 304 feet, on an
octagonal drum, was designed by John F. Stanton, State architect. The
great central dome is more slender in proportion than that of the Na
tional Capitol, and is octagonal in shape. The weathered cap of the dome
is of copper which the elements have turned to a bluish green color. It is
topped with a lantern cupola, also copper covered, with a balustraded
platform at its base from which there is an impressive panoramic view of
the city and its environs. This platform is reached from the interior by
means of a circular iron stairway extending from the fifth floor. The outer
drum of the dome, designed in two stages, is adorned with a superim
posed ordinance of Doric and Corinthian columns, at the first and second
levels, respectively. Light is admitted to the interior through large arched
windows in the drum as well as through a row of medallion windows in
the lower portion of the dome. The interior of the rotunda is decorated
with murals by Abner Crossman of Chicago. These paintings are around
the base of the drum. One group of figures depicts Religion, Knowledge
and Temperance; the second, Plenty; the third, Peace; and the fourth,
Power.
The Florentine decorations in the SENATE CHAMBER, which occupies
the third floor of the east wing, were added during the i88o s, at a cost
of $300,000. The twenty-eight columns and pilasters encircling the room
are decorated with hand-hammered copper in a design of ivy, morning
glories, and roses. Seats are arranged in a semicircle about the rostrum
and there are visitors balconies at the front and rear of the room. Ten
nessee marble frames the doors and the walls are paneled in Mexican
onyx.
REPRESENTATIVE HALL, on the third floor of the west wing, is less
elaborate than the Senate Chamber but of similar plan. Wainscoting on
the walls is of imported marble, trimmed with Italian Carrara.
Sgt. Boston Corbett, alleged slayer of John Wilkes Booth, was door
keeper for the house of representatives for a short time during the legis
lative session of 1887. Corbett, a religious fanatic who shot Booth in de
fiance of orders to take the assassin alive, justified his act by saying that
God had told him to avenge the death of President Lincoln. While he was
ft*
THE CAPITOL, TOPEKA
acting as doorkeeper he became violently insane, threatened the lives of
fellow employees and was arrested and committed to the State Hospital for
the Insane. He later stole a visitor s pony from a hitching post at the hos
pital and escaped to Mexico.
During the session of 1893 several Populists contested the seats of Re
publican members and each party claimed the right to organize the house.
For several days the two bodies held sessions on opposite sides of the hall.
Finally, on February 14, the elections committee of the Republican house
summoned L. C. Gunn, a Populist, to testify as a witness in one of the
election contest hearings. Gunn refused to obey the summons and was ar
rested by a Republican sergeant-at-arms. He immediately instituted habeas
corpus proceedings and the legality of the Republican house was brought
before the supreme court. The Republicans next arrested Ben Rich, chief
clerk of the Populist body. Enraged Populists stormed the hall, rescued
Rich and barricaded the door after clearing out the Republican faction.
The following morning, after battering down the doors with a sledge
hammer, Republicans surged into the hall and ejected their rivals. On
February 17 an agreement was reached whereby the Populists held their
sessions in another room and the Republicans retained the hall. Eight days
Lit r the supreme court recognized the Republican body as "the legal and
constitutional house of representatives of the State of Kansas," bringing
the Legislative War to an end.
288 CITIES AND TOWNS
The STATE LIBRARY (open 8 :30-5 weekdays), occupying the third floor
of the north wing is divided into three departments: the REFERENCE
DEPARTMENT, the LAW DEPARTMENT, and the STORMONT MEDICAL
LIBRARY. There are approximately 112,000 volumes in the reference and
law departments, exclusive of pamphlets and unbound periodicals. These
departments are supported by State appropriations.
The Stormont Medical Library, established in 1889 by a gift of $5,000
from Mrs. Jane C. Stormont, is supported by the income from this ddna-
tion. Books are selected by a committee appointed by the State Medical
Association. This section contains more than 2,000 volumes.
LINCOLN STATUE, by Merrell Gage, southeast corner of the capital
park, is of cast iron and depicts the Civil War President seated in an arm
chair in a meditative pose. Unveiled February 12, 1918, this was the first
statue in Kansas to be executed by a Kansas sculptor.
The OLD COTTONWOOD TREE, 9th St. entrance (L), is a giant tree as
old as the capitol itself. According to legend, it sprouted from a stake that
was used to secure a guy rope during construction of the first wing of the
building. Under its rustling leaves three Presidents have spoken Harri
son, McKinley, and Taft. The late Charles Curtis stood beneath its spread
ing branches and received notification of his nomination for the Vice
Presidency. Here, too, in 1936, Gov. Alf M. Landon was formally noti
fied of his nomination as Republican candidate for the Presidency.
FOUNTAIN TREE, just west of the north entrance to the capitol, is a liv
ing hydrant. From the faucet in the trunk of this elm, city water is drawn.
Years past, an open water main protruded several inches above the ground
and became filled with dirt in which an elm seed lodged and the tree
sprouted. The tree put out roots above the rim of the pipe and extended
them into the earth confining the pipe in the hollow of the trunk. Ob
serving this phenomenon, a custodian bored a hole into the trunk and in
serted a small pipe to which he attached a faucet.
The PIONEER STATUE, also by Merrell Gage, stands in the southwest
corner of the grounds. The statue portrays a mother guarding her two
children. She is holding a baby in one arm and a boy kneels at her side.
A long rifle lies across her knee. The statue rests on a granite base.
14. The TOPEKA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL (open 8-5 weekdays),
loth and Taylor Sts., was completed in 1930 at a cost of $2,000,000.
Designed by T. R. Griest of Topeka, the building is of Collegiate Gothic
architecture, constructed of pressed brick and native stone. The auditorium
has a seating capacity of 2,500. In the Gothic tower is a carillon, donated
by the late David W. Mulvane as a memorial to his wife. A foreyard of
the old United States frigate Constitution is used as a flagpole at the Polk
Street entrance. It was presented to the school in 1930 by the United
States Navy through the efforts of the late Charles Curtis.
15. The EXECUTIVE MANSION, SW. corner 8th and Buchanan
Sts., was purchased by the State in 1901. It was built as a private residence
in 1889 by Erastus Bennett, a Topekan who had acquired a fortune by
buying European horses and breeding them for Kansas farms. The three-
EXECUTIVE MANSION, TOPEKA
story, 32-room mansion of brick and terra cotta is of the ornate late Vic
torian style, surmounted with a cupola.
1 6. GRACE CATHEDRAL, SW. corner 8th and Polk Sts., the Cathe
dral of the Kansas Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, is a twin-
towered limestone structure designed by George M. Seyman of Kansas
City, Mo. Its exterior is patterned after the medieval cathedrals of Eng
land and Normandy. The interior walls are of masonry, the ceiling of
plaster and wooden beams, copied in detail from Westminster Hall, Lon
don. The flat, three centered arches under the clerestory wall are designed
in the English Perpendicular Gothic style.
An altar piece by the late George M. Stone, Topeka artist, was pre
sented to the church in 1919. It is an interpretation of "The Transfigura
tion" and depicts Christ with Moses and Elijah on the mountain top be
fore the apostles, Peter, James, and John. The canvas is ten feet by twelve
feet and the figures in the foreground are life size.
The pulpit is adorned with eleven figures by Alois Lang, Bavarian
woodcarver, representing the Saviour, the Four Evangelists, St. Paul and
the Five Angels of Adoration. The rose window is composed of glass left
over from a rose window of Westminster Abbey, London, several boxes
of which had been stored in the abbey since 1760. The framework was
290 CITIES AND TOWNS
made in Topeka and shipped to London where the glass was fitted. A cher
ished relic is THE BAPTISMAL SPOON (for permission to view, apply at
rectory west of cathedral), one of five made by King Olaf of Norway in
1571, which was presented to the church by Mrs. Julius Severin Greu.
The cathedral has a seating capacity of 1,100.
17. The TOPEKA PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 10-8 weekdays), SW.
corner 8th and Jackson Sts., is a two-story building of brick and lime
stone, erected in 1882 with funds provided by two railroad companies,
the donors stipulating that it should be erected on the capitol square. It is
of modified Romanesque design. The library contains 30,000 volumes.
18. CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION, NW. corner 8th and Jackson
Sts., is a buff -colored brick Roman Catholic church designed by Carroll &
Defoe of Kansas City, in the Romanesque style. It was built in 1924 on
the site of the first Catholic church in Topeka, erected in 1862.
19. The CAPPER MANSION (open 8-5 daily), NW. corner Topeka
Blvd. and nth St., is headquarters for radio station WIBW, owned and
operated by Capper Publications. The house, a two-story limestone and
concrete structure of the Italian villa type, was designed by Root & Sei-
mans of Kansas City and completed in 1912. It was the residence of
Kansas senior Senator during his two terms as Governor of the State
(1915-1919). Capper s successor, Gov. Henry J. Allen, also occupied the
Capper mansion during his tenure of office. For several years, Kansas two
United States Senators lived on opposite corners of Topeka Boulevard and
nth Street, but Senator Charles Curtis resignation to accept the nomina
tion for Vice President ended Topeka s senatorial monopoly.
20. CHARLES CURTIS HOME (private), SW. corner Topeka Blvd.
and nth St., is a three-story late Victorian structure built of red brick and
limestone. Curtis, grandson of a Kaw Indian chief, spent his boyhood on
the reservation. Admitted to the bar in 1881 he launched upon a long and
successful political career. Kansas had just adopted prohibition. Elected to
the office of county attorney or prosecutor of Shawnee County, Curtis be
gan his career as the scourge of the "jointists," as the illegal saloon
keepers were termed, thus establishing the Kansas tradition, that the suc
cessful young office seeker must be an avowed prohibitionist. While the
young prosecutor was hammering the liquor trade, his law partner was a
recalcitrant old gentleman who was said to be one of the jointists regular
customers. A citizen asked him, "How does it happen that you drink so
much liquor when Charley is a strict prohibitionist?" To which came the
alleged reply, "Well Charley s closing em up and I m just drinking up
the supply on hand." Shawnee County and the Congressional District of
which it was a part rewarded Charley Curtis by electing him Representa
tive in 1892, which position he held until 1907 when he was elected to
fill an unexpired term in the United States Senate. He represented Kansas
in that office until he resigned in 1928 to accept the nomination for Vice
President on the ticket with Herbert Hoover. He died in Washington in
1936.
21. TOPEKA S OLDEST TREE, SE. corner Huntoon and Clay Sts.,
is marked with a plate placed at its base by pupils of nearby Central
TOPEKA 291
Park School. It is a giant locust, with widespreading branches and a trunk
; hree feet in diameter, and is said to have been a full grown tree when the
town was founded in 1854.
22. WASHBURN COLLEGE, iyth St. and College Ave., established
.n 1865 as a denominational college under the direction of the Congrega-
lional Church, represents the New England culture long dominant in
Topeka. The i6o-acre elm-shaded campus, which stretches away to the
Shunganunga Valley on the south, was donated in 1858 by John Ritchie,
Topeka pioneer. When the college was incorporated, this site was con
sidered too remote from the settlement (it was more than a mile west of
ihe city limits) and classes opened in a stone building known as Lincoln
College at loth and Jackson Streets, the present site of the Memorial
Building. As donations began to swell the endowment fund trustees de-
c ided to use the Ritchie tract. The first building on the campus was erected
in 1870 and the college was renamed for Ichabod Washburn of Worces
ter, Mass., one of the donors. Washburn s athletic teams are known today
as the "Sons of Ichabod" or "The Ichabods."
There are nearly a score of buildings including Rice Hall, Carnegie
Library, MacVicar Chapel, Whiting Field House, Thomas Gymnasium,
Boswell Hall, the Observatory, Holbrook Hall, Benton Hall, a women s
dormitory ; and Mulvane Art Museum. Four sororities and two fraternities
have erected chapter houses on the campus since the Kansas Supreme
Court ruled in 1933 that fraternity houses are not tax exempt unless they
are on school property. Buildings are constructed of Kansas limestone and
of varying Romanesque, classic, and modern design.
Washburn is a co-educational nationally accredited college with a lib
eral atmosphere, offering courses in liberal arts, fine arts, journalism, and
law. Its law school has a high rating and many law students from the
State University complete their preparation for an LL. B. degree here
after receiving their A. B. at the Lawrence institution.
The college has an annual enrollment of 700 to 800 students. Since
3910 it has been conducted as a non-sectarian institution.
MULVANE ART MUSEUM (open 8 a.m. -5 p.m.; 7 p.m. -9: 30 p.m.
weekdays; 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Sun.), a two-story limestone building, is in a
small grove near the northwest edge of the campus. It is Italian Renais
sance in style and was constructed in 1923. It houses the college depart
ment of art and contains a collection of painting and sculpture. In the
Hall of Sculpture on the first floor are three pieces by Merrell Gage,
former instructor in the college department of art: John Brown, Mother
and Child, and the Flutist. In the collection of oils on the second floor are
Henry Salem Hubbell s the Orange Robe; the Frosty Morning by John F.
Carlson, and Bierstadt s Rocky Mountain Landscape. An oil portrait of the
Lite Joab Mulvane, Topeka art patron, whose $50,000 bequest made the
museum possible, is the work of George M. Stone.
RICE HALL, a three-story limestone building with red tile roof, con
structed in 1870, is the oldest building on the campus. It contains a small
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (open 2-5 weekdays during school year),
which includes mounted specimens of birds and animals and a collection
292 CITIES AND TOWNS
of insects. Near Rice Hall is the OLD COLLEGE BELL, which hung in the
Rice Hall belfry before the fire that partially destroyed the building in
1907. It was used to call students to classes and to ring out the glad tid
ings of a football victory. The bell was salvaged after the fire, but was
never restored to its old place in the belfry.
23. GAGE PARK, 6th Ave. and Gage Blvd., 146 acres, Topeka s larg
est recreational center, contains a swimming pool, tennis courts, baseball
diamonds, picnic grounds, a rock garden, and a small 200.
The REINISCH ROSE GARDEN, in the southwest section of the park, a
memorial to the late E. F. Reinisch, former park superintendent, has been
termed the perfect rose garden by national experts. It has received prize
awards in several contests.
The OLD SETTLERS MEMORIAL CABIN (open 9 a.m. -10 p.m. daily),
north and east of the Reinisch Rose Garden, was originally on the farm
of Adam Bauer, near Topeka. It was removed to Gage Park in the early
1930*8. The cabin is of walnut logs and its dooryard enclosed by a rail
fence. It contains numerous pioneer relics including two sewing machines,
a spinning wheel, rifles, pistols, and cooking utensils. In the dooryard are
several old wagon wheels, two feed troughs hewn out of logs, and many
other household and farm implements used in pioneer days.
24. KANSAS STATE HOSPITAL (grounds open at all hours), 6th
St. and Randolph Ave., its 22 buildings half -hidden by a heavily- wooded
park, is reached by a drive that is an extension of Randolph Avenue. The
institution grounds cover an area of 320 acres. The main drive leads to the
administration building, a yellow brick structure with a turreted roof. At
this point it turns right and follows a circuitous route past a row of brick
buildings in which the 1,800 patients are housed. An area of approx
imately 80 acres is attractively landscaped. Left of the main buildings are
poultry houses, cattle barns, a green house, and implement sheds. Nearly
240 acres are under cultivation and the institution maintains a dairy farm.
Farm produce and dairy products are consumed in the hospital dining
rooms and the income from surplus products is applied to the annual
maintenance fund. The hospital, established in 1878, is one of three State
supported institutions for treatment of the insane. All types of mental
cases are treated here.
25. UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STATION (open by arrange
ment with owner), in the rear of a private home at the SW. corner 23rd
St. and Pennsylvania Ave., is a small, one-story building constructed of
walnut slabs. The station was established in 1855 by Daniel Sheridan, an
associate of John Brown, as a connecting link in the Underground Rail
way system that enabled escaped slaves from Missouri to make their way
through Kansas and Nebraska to a haven of safety at Tabor, Iowa. From
the cellar beneath the building a tunnel connected with an opening in a
pasture 100 yards east. Most of the tunnel has caved in and all traces of
the exterior opening have been obliterated but the passageway is still visi
ble from the basement.
26. TOPEKA CEMETERY, loth and Lafayette Sts., contains a monu
ment to the Kansas soldiers who died in the Battle of the Blue. It is a
-s<^
LOG CABIN (1870), GAGE PARK, TOPEKA
white granite shaft 75 feet high, dedicated May 30, 1895, by Col. George
Veale, who commanded the 2nd Kansas Militia in the battle.
27. The SANTA FE SHOPS (open 8-5 weekdays on application to the
superintendent), 3rd and Holliday Sts., consisting of a dozen factory-type
buildings of brick and stone and a network of track, cover an area of 225
acres, part of the old Cyrus K. Holliday farm. An average of 2,000 men
are employed here in repairing locomotives and other rolling stock.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Old Stagecoach Station, 2.9 m.; Alf M. Landon Mansion, 3J w.; Kansas Voca
tion School, 3.9 m.; State Industrial School, 4.1 m.; Old Baptist Mission, 6J m.;
Burnett s Mound, 6.7 m.; Chief Burnett s Grave, 8.3 m. (see Tour 3) ; Lyons Castle,
Jl m. (see Tovr 11).
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <-<-&&gt; >>>))>>>>>>>)>>>>
Wichita
Railroad Stations: Union Station, E. Douglas Ave. at Santa Fe St., for Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe Ry., Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry., and St. Louis & San
Francisco Ry. ; 302 W. Douglas Ave. for Missouri Pacific R.R.
Bus Stations: Union Bus Station, NE. corner Broadway and William St., for South
ern Kansas Stage Lines, Southern Kansas Greyhound Lines, Cardinal Stage Lines,
Santa Fe Trailways of Illinois, and Santa Fe Trails Stages.
Buses: (Street System) From Douglas Ave. to all parts of the city; fare 70, or
tokens 5 for 250.
Taxis: Minimum fare, io0, governed by zones.
Airports: Municipal Airport, 4 m. SE. on State 15, Braniff Airways and Transcon
tinental and Western Air.
Traffic Regulations: All plainly indicated; no one-way streets.
Accommodations: Nineteen hotels.
Information Service: Kansas Highway Patrol, 1721 N. Broadway; Kansas Motor
Club, Hotel Lassen, 153 N. Market St.
Radio Stations: KFH (1300 kc.), KANS (1210 kc.).
Theater and Motion Picture Houses: Arcadia Theater, Water and William Sts. ; the
Municipal Forum, Water and English Sts., for concerts and road shows; thirteen
motion picture houses.
Swimming: Municipal, South Riverside Park (R), off Central Ave. at Arkansas
River.
Boating: Israel (Riverside) Boathouse, E. end of Murdock Bridge, for canoes and
rowboats; motor launch ride to Little River Dam, io0.
Golf: Municipal, in Sim Park, W. end of nth St., greens fee 250; Meadowlark,
4 m. SE. on State 15, greens fee 250; Westlink, 6 m. W. on US 54, greens fee 250;
Canyons, 1 m. W. Municipal (State 15) Airport, greens fee 250; Crestview Country
Club, 2ist and Oliver Sts., greens fee 250.
Riding: Bridle and Saddle Club, 3.75 m. E. on Central Ave.; Gill Riding Stable,
from downtown E. 1 m. to Hydraulic Ave. and S. 3 m.
Annual Events: Farm Power Equipment Show and Southwest Road School at Forum,
Feb.; State choir and orchestra joint concert, Mar.; Girls National Basketball
Tournament, Forum, Mar.; spring concerts of Minisa Chorus and Orchestra of
Wichita Municipal University, May; spring concerts by the Singing Quakers of
Friends University, April; National Semi-pro Baseball Tournament, Stadium, Aug.;
annual pageants (historical), and stock show, Nov.
WICHITA (1,283 a ft-> m,iio pop.), seat of Sedgwick County, lies on
tablelands at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers.
A fifth of the city is built west of the Arkansas River ; a smaller fraction
lies on the tongue of land between the junction of the rivers. The rest of
Wichita sprawls east of the rivers, its north-south bulk bisected by a drain
age canal. The city is closely knit by concrete bridges, six of which span
the Arkansas, eight the Little Arkansas, and twenty-four the drainage
canal.
The area west of the Arkansas River, commonly called West Wichita,
294
WICHITA 295
i> composed of residential districts. Houses for the most part are large
structures of brick and stone with an occasional frame dwelling extrava
gantly decorated in the gingerbread style of the i88o s. The repeated pat
tern of lawns, houses, and neighborhood shopping districts is broken by
the campus of Friends University, Mount Carmel Academy, and the Ma
sonic Home.
The attractive residential section on the peninsula between the rivers is
called Riverside. The trim bungalows that occupy this area are ranged be
side avenues that terminate north at the banks of the rivers, and south at
the lawns and wooded groves of Sim Park and Central Riverside Park.
The latter contains one of the rare stands of virgin timber that remain in
this section of Kansas.
Wichita east of the rivers consists of business, residential, and indus
trial blocks. The business district more metropolitan than those of other
Kansas cities is centered around the junction of Main Street and Doug
hs Avenue. Two-and-three-story shops heavily corniced in the style of the
1890 $ cluster at the base of tall office structures and department store
buildings whose ten-to-seventeen-story heights are the nearest approach
t3 skyscrapers in Kansas. On Wichita Street, between English and Lewis
Streets, is Tractor Row, an area two blocks long so-named because it is
wholly occupied by dealers in tractors and farm power equipment.
The avenues north and south of the business district are lined with elm
and cottonwood trees which shade the lawns of comfortable residences.
This neighborhood is bounded on the east by the tracks of the Santa Fe
Railway. East of the tracks to the drainage canal is a low-income section
of small cottages and box-style houses. Beyond the drainage canal the
streets rise gradually to the slope that flanks the eastern section of the city.
On the crest of the slope are the neat brick and frame houses of the resi
dential area known as College Hill. Along the north-south extent of this
section are six cemeteries, and Fairmount Park, College Hill Park, St.
Mary s Academy (Roman Catholic), and the Wichita Municipal Uni
versity.
At the east fringe of the College Hill district are various restricted resi
dential areas, most unusual of which is Eastborough at the extremity of
Douglas Avenue. Eastborough was developed as an expensive residential
addition, but in July 1930 oil gushed forth from a pool that underlies the
region. Today stately Georgian houses share the Eastborough horizon with
the steel girders of oil derricks.
The buffer section that lies between the Santa Fe Railway and the drain
age canal trails off at the north in a vast industrial area. Ranged along the
tracks of the four railroads that thread this section are a stockyard, rail
road shops, grain elevators, and oil stills and tanks. Wichita ranks fourth
as a national milling center and sixth as an interior market for grain. Six
local mills have a combined daily capacity of about 12,000 barrels of
flour. Four oil refineries can produce about 11,000 barrels per day. Five
meat packing plants make Wichita the center of that industry in the South-
uest. Other industries include the manufacture of textiles, leather goods,
296 CITIES AND TOWNS
building materials, food products, farm machinery, airplanes, tools, and
dies, and drilling and oil field equipment.
Wichita was named for the Wichita Indians who, having been driven
into Texas by the Osage s invasion of Kansas, returned to their native
region in 1863 and built a village of grass lodges near the mouth of the
Little Arkansas River. James R. Mead, aided by Jesse Chisholm, a half-
breed Cherokee, established a trading post near the Wichita village in
1864. In the following year, at the close of the Civil War, Mead sent
Chisholm into the Southwest with a wagonload of goods to exchange for
buffalo hides. While returning Chisholm encountered a severe storm but
pressed on toward Wichita, his heavily laden wagon cutting deep tracks
in the prairie soil. Thus was blazed the Chisholm Trail, the broad high
way through the wilderness over which in subsequent years traveled scouts,
traders, Indians, ranchers, and cowboys.
Following the removal of the Wichita tribe to Oklahoma Territory
after 1865, Mead s trading post became the nucleus of a settlement. A
herd of 2,400 Texas longhorns was driven up the Chisholm Trail in
1867, past the cottonwood pole hut and several dugouts at the site of
Wichita, and on to the Union Pacific Railroad at Abilene. Throughout
1868 the Chisholm Trail was beaten hard by the hooves of Texas cattle.
The settlers at Wichita began to provide accommodations for the herd-
driving cowboys. E. S. Munger built the Munger House and a second set
tler built the "first and last chance saloon," where thirsty cowpunchers
could get their first drink coming up the trail and their last before return
ing to Texas.
Thousands of steers passed over the Chisholm Trail in 1870. In that
year Wichita was platted. In 1871 the Santa Fe Railway was built midway
between Wichita and Abilene to Newton, which town superseded Abilene
as the "cow capital," but when the railway was extended to Wichita in
1872 Newton was relegated to the "cow capital" limbo and Wichita
boomed. Before the end of the year about 350,000 cattle were driven to
the new "cow capital"; a Government land office was established; and
Col. Marshall M. Murdock began publishing the Wichita Eagle. Shops,
cafes, saloons, and dance halls were hastily built. Scouts, Indians, gam
blers, cowboys, Mexican ranchers, and homesteaders milled in the streets,
crowded into dance halls and barrooms, and frolicked to the music of a
brass band that was especially imported by the proprietors of a gambling
house. Costumes ranged from the checkered suits worn by "sports from
back east in Kansas City" to the chaps and sombrero of the cowboy, the
buckskin breeches and jackets of the scouts and plainsmen, and the brightly
colored blankets worn toga-like by Indians. Signs posted at the outskirts
of the town declared: "Anything goes in Wichita. Leave your revolvers
at police headquarters and get a check. Carrying concealed weapons is
strictly forbidden."
The Reverend Luther Hart Platt, widely known as the "fiddlin
preacher," made desperate efforts to improve the moral tone of the ebul
lient cow town. Occasionally he would stalk into a saloon, clear his throat
and intone a popular ballad, accompanying himself on the fiddle. When
1
I
TERMINAL ELEVATOR, WICHITA
the crowd gathered round he would play several hymns and then lay aside
his fiddle to preach. At the conclusion of the sermon he would invite his
listeners to attend the coming Sunday services in the dugout schoolhouse,
and then depart, fiddle under arm.
Within this decade scores of settlers arrived at Wichita. Land specula
tion became rife and property values soared. The Chisholm Trail was
criss-crossed with barbed-wire barriers and by 1880 virtually oversown
with wheat. The cattle trail was consequently shifted farther west to
Dodge City and Wichita entered a period of decline. Gamblers, saloon
keepers, and merchants vacated the city to cash in on the prosperity of the
new "cow capital." Land values collapsed at Wichita in 1886, bankrupt
ing many a townsman.
The settlers who had fenced off the prairie and thereby contributed to
the fall of "cow capital" Wichita, more than atoned for their fault through
out the i88o s and 90*5. Grain from their farms soon equalled the wealth
formerly brought by cattle, and Wichita took a new lease on life as a
trade and milling center. During the harvest rush wheat-laden wagons
often stood on the streets for thirty-six hours before they could be weighed
;md emptied at the mills. It was not uncommon to see carts and wagons
lined along Douglas Avenue in files ten blocks long.
CITIES AND TOWNS
Where cattle had built dance halls and gambling houses, wheat built
churches and schools. All Hallows Academy (now Mount Carmel Acad
emy) was founded in 1888; Fairmount College (now Wichita Municipal
University) was established in 1892; and Garfield University (now
Friends University) was established in 1898. An interest in art, music,
and literature was contemporaneously kindled among the townspeople.
By 1900 the population exceeded 24,000. Wichita thereafter all but
doubled its population each decade, reaching 86,000 in 1920. Shortly after
the World War oil was discovered in the door-step pool," so-called be
cause of its proximity to the city. Wealth derived from this source was
used to build large business structures in the downtown section and
palatial residences in restricted subdivisions. Local economy was further
stimulated by post-war interest in airplane manufacturing, which industry
had been previously established in the city. Wichita business men, eager
to bolster Wichita s claim as "Air Capital of America," built factory after
factory, until by the middle 1920*5 fifteen had been erected. These firms
built 1,500 planes in 1928, or one-fourth of the total commercial output
of the country. About 2,500 planes were produced the following year.
The depression of 1929 sent Wichita s airplane industry into a disas
trous tailspin, but four companies withstood the crash. Their plants and
equipment are today valued at $2,500,000; their total annual production
is estimated at $1,500,000. The industry employs an average of 550 work
men.
Noted former residents of Wichita are the late John Noble (see ART) ;
Bruce Moore, sculptor ; Kathleen Kersting, operatic star ; Earl R. Browder,
Presidential candidate of the Communist party in 1936; and Charles
B. Driscoll, author and columnist. Wichita is the home town of United
States Senator George H. McGill.
POINTS OF INTEREST
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, SW. corner of Broadway and
Elm St., a modified Gothic limestone structure with an octagonal tower,
was designed by Badgley and Nicklas of Cleveland, Ohio. Huge stained
glass windows, designed by A. A. Leyendecker, rise from the wainscot
ing to the peak of the arched ceiling. The church was built in 1910. The
SARA BLAIR CASE MEMORIAL EDUCATION BUILDING, adjoining the
church, is a three-story limestone structure, built in 1936. It was designed
by Glenn Thomas of Wichita.
The CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
(Roman Catholic), SE. corner of Broadway and Central Ave., popularly
known as St. Mary s Cathedral, occupies the northwest corner of the one
time homestead of James R. Meade, a founder of Wichita. The cathedral
was dedicated in 1912. Of modified Romanesque and Italian Renaissance
architecture the facade of the structure is adorned with four massive col
umns of Vermont gray granite. The design of the copper dome is based
upon that of the domes over the twin churches of Piazza del Populo in
Rome. E. L. Masquery of St. Paul, Minn., who designed several of the
WICHITA 299
exposition buildings at the St. Louis World s Fair (1904) was the architect.
The SEDGWICK COUNTY COURTHOUSE, NW. corner of Cen
tral Ave. and Market St., is a six-story limestone structure, built in
1890. From the town clock in the tower swings a pendulum that weighs
nearly a half-ton. The building was designed by W. H. Sternberg of
Wichita.
The HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF THE SEDGWICK COUNTY
PIONEER SOCIETY (open 8-5 weekdays), in the main corridor on the
second floor of the courthouse, contains pictures of the early day local
scene; Indian weapons and utensils (principally Arapahoe and Chey
enne) ; and examples of pioneer women s sewing, weaving, and knitting.
The SOLDIER S AND SAILOR S MONUMENT, on the south lawn
of the courthouse, was designed by E. M. Viquesney and erected in 1912
in memory of the Union force that served in the Civil War. It consists of
a bronze figure of Liberty, flanked by four life-sized figures of Union sol
diers and sailors.
The UNITED STATES POST OFFICE AND COURTHOUSE,
NW. corner of Market and 3rd Sts., a four-story, white stone structure of
neoclassic design, was planned by architects of the U. S. Treasury Depart
ment and completed in 1932. The interior is lavishly finished with marble,
walnut, and gold leaf. The wall panels in the recess behind the bench in
the district courtrooms are of marble quarried in Germany; the panels on
the ceiling of the circuit courtroom are decorated with 23-carat gold leaf.
The WICHITA PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 9-9 weekdays), 220 S.
Main St., is a two-story stone structure with a green tile roof. It was de
signed by Anthony Allaire Crowell and built in 1915. On the Mezzanine
floor are three mural paintings by Arthur Sinclair Covey Promise, Frui
tion, and Afterglow which depict the progress of civilization on the
prairies. The library contains 127,000 volumes.
The MUNICIPAL FORUM, NW. corner of Water and English Sts.,
is a three-story structure of extra-sized brick, owned and maintained by
the city of Wichita. Its auditorium seats 4,800. The structure is used for
conventions, expositions, political rallies, and large-cast road shows. Ad
joining the forum are an exhibition arcade and a two-story brick Expo
sition Building. The latter structure, at the SW. corner of Water and Wil
liam Sts., contains the ARCADIA THEATRE where concerts and road shows
are presented. The total floor space of the Forum, the exhibition arcade,
.md the Exposition Building is 211,340 square feet. The Forum was built
in 1910 and the Exposition Building in 1918.
The WICHITA ART MUSEUM (open 11-5 daily except Mon.; show
ings changed monthly; jree except for special exhibitions; motor bus
service Sun. only) is at the south entrance of Sim Park, 619 Stackman
Drive. It is a cast stone structure with severely modern lines, designed
by Clarence S. Stein of New York City, and completed in 1935.
Polychrome sculptures by Lee Lawrie, depicting Indian arts and crafts,
i.dorn the entrance. The construction of the museum was financed by a
grant of the Public Works Administration, and a $70,000 bequest from
Mrs. Louise Caldwell Murdock.
300 CITIES AND TOWNS
In the permanent collection are a frieze by Walter Ufer, a black panther
in lacquered bronze by Bruce Moore, and paintings by Dewey Albinson,
E. L. Blumenschein, Max Bohm, Maurice Braun, Ed L. Davison, William
Dickerson, B. J. L. Hordfeldt, E. Kopietz, John Noble, Birger Sandzen,
Elizabeth Sprague, and Walter Ufer.
8. RIVERSIDE PARK ZOO (open 9-5 daily), River Blvd. and Nims
Ave., contains an aviary, an animal house, fish ponds, an alligator pond,
and a bear den. The main building, half a block north of Woodman
Bridge on Nims Avenue, houses monkeys, lions, and other jungle beasts.
9. THE HIKER, SW. corner of Nims and Murdock Ave., an heroic
bronze figure of a soldier, was designed by Newman Allen. It was erected
in 1926 by members of Lawton Camp No. 18 of the United Spanish War
Veterans, in honor of the Spanish- American War veterans of Wichita and
Sedgwick County.
10. The OLD MUNGER HOUSE (private) 920 Back Bay Blvd., built
of wide upright boards painted white, is generally believed to be the first
house in what is now Wichita. It was constructed in 1868. Buffalo hair
was used to reenforce the plaster of the interior walls. Its original owner,
D. S. Munger, was at times justice of the peace, postmaster, and innkeeper
of the settlement. He made the first plat of Wichita. His house then
situated one hundred yards east of its present site was at the very center
of the village. Cowboys wounded on the trails or in drunken brawls cus
tomarily came to Munger for hospitalization of sorts in the present struc
ture. The purveying of food and shelter was, however, Munger s principal
pursuit, in which connection the Wichita Eagle of April 12, 1872, said:
"The Munger House in the original town is a bower now and a paradise
for homelike, quiet-stopping people. Mr. Munger is alive to the interest of
his guests, and sets a good table and keeps clean beds. What more does a
traveling public demand? No pause for reply."
11. WICHITA HIGH SCHOOL, NORTH, NW. corner of i3th St.,
and Rochester Ave., the newer of the two high schools in Wichita, was
opened in the autumn of 1929. Constructed of buff brick with a red tile
roof, it is architecturally noteworthy as an example of the "prairie" style.
The walls are trimmed with cream-colored Silverdale (Kansas) stone, and
decorated with sculptured figures in polychrome and terra cotta. Near the
top of the 9o-foot tower that surmounts the school are four panels of
colored terra cotta which depict Indian and buffalo scenes. The structure
was designed by Glenn Thomas of Wichita; the ornamentation and dec
orative panels are the work of Bruce Moore, Wichita. Two Indians, a
painting by Walter Ufer, hangs in the first floor corridor of the school.
12. MINIS A BRIDGE, i3th St. and Little Arkansas River, was planned
to harmonize with the Wichita High School, North. It is ornamented with
Indian and buffalo heads designed by Bruce Moore. The structure was
dedicated in 1932 and named Minisa (Ind. red waters) by high school
students who chose the word from the title of a composition by Thurlow
Lieurance, authority on Indian music.
On MEAD ISLAND (no bridge or convenient method of transporta
tion), So. of Minisa Bridge, is a GRASS HOUSE of the type in which the
AIRVIEW, RIVERSIDE PARK, WICHITA
Wichita Indians formerly dwelled. The structure was built in 1927 by
descendants of the tribe, now Jiving in Oklahoma. It consists of a pole and
willow rod framework, thatched with grass. Coronado noted grass lodges
at the village of Quivira in 1541 (see ARCHITECTURE).
13. SIM MEMORIAL PARK, entrance at the W. end of Beal Ave.,
consists of 183 acres beside the Arkansas River. The site was given to
Wichita in 1917 by Mr. and Mrs. Colar B. Sim in memory of their son,
Arthur. It contains a municipal golf course, archery grounds, and picnic
groves equipped with roasting ovens and concrete tables. A drive parallels
the river through the park and emerges at the south near the intersection
of Pine Street and River Boulevard.
14. The WICHITA HORSE AND MULE MARKET (open 8-6 week
days), 521 E. 2ist St., is a branch of the Wichita Union Stockyards Co.,
managed by the Wichita Horse and Mule Commission Co. The Wednes
day auction sales are attended by buyers from foreign countries and
302 CITIES AND TOWNS
many parts of the United States. A carload of trail mules are annually pur
chased at this market for use in Grand Canyon National Park.
15. The WICHITA UNION STOCKYARDS EXCHANGE BUILD
ING (open 8-5 weekdays), NE. corner of 2ist St. and Meade Ave., was
built in 1909. It houses the Union Stockyards National Bank, the offices
of the Union Stockyards Co., numerous commission firms and stockfeed
companies, the U. S. Market News Service, and the remote control studio
of radio station KFH. The yards (no acres) north of the Exchange
Building have a capacity of 5,000 sheep, 15,000 hogs, and 21,000 cattle.
The area is paved with brick, electrically lighted, and drained by a special
system of sewers.
16. The DERBY OIL REFINERY (open by permission), noo E. 2ist
St., is representative of the oil industry in Wichita. Crude oil is pumped
to the refinery from the Eastborough Pool, which lies between Douglas
and Central Avenues, a mile east of Oliver Street.
17. The MUNICIPAL UNIVERSITY OF WICHITA, 2ist and Hill
side Ave., an outgrowth of Fairmount College founded in 1892, is a co
educational institution created in 1926 by a referendum vote in Wichita.
The curriculum is composed of courses in education, science, business ad
ministration, and the fine and liberal arts. The university has an average
enrollment of 1,500 students. Its president (1938) Dr. William M. Jar-
dine, was formerly U/ S. Secretary of Agriculture (1925-29), and Min
ister to Egypt (1930-33). The College of Fine Arts is directed (1938)
by Thurlow Lieurance, D. M., known for his research among Indians, and
for his Indian musical compositions, "Minisa," and "By the Waters of
Minnetonka."
The university has offered courses in police science since 1935. Through
a cooperative arrangement between university officials and the Wichita
Police Department, young men, invested with full police authority, are
employed as cadets while studying a two-year course in criminal law and
police science. They attend classes in the morning and perform a half tour
of police duty each day.
The university occupies an 8o-acre campus overlooking Wichita. There
are six brick buildings and several frame structures, the latter remaining
from Fairmount College. The main buildings are Fiske Hall and the Ad
ministration Building.
MORRISON LIBRARY (open 8:30-10 weekdays), facing Fairmount
Ave. at the south of the campus, is a yellow brick structure of neoclassic
design trimmed with stone. It was designed by Robert R. Ross, dedicated
in 1910, and named for Nathan F. Morrison, former president of Fair-
mount College. The library contains 60,000 volumes, many thousand
pamphlets and periodicals. It is a depository of the Federal Government.
The CARTER MEMORIAL ROOM contains 2,000 volumes of the com
plete works of classical English and American authors, many of which
are first editions.
The NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (open during class hours), in
the Science Hall north of Morrison Library, contains marine fossils, geo-
WICHITA 303
logical specimens, Indian artifacts, a large collection of bird and small
mammal specimens, World War memorabilia, and Palestinian field, shop,
and household utensils. The latter were procured through Selah Merrill,
former U. S. Consul to Syria.
1 8. The OLD MISSION CEMETERY, main entrance 2ist St. and
Hillside Ave., has a CARILLON that attracts large audiences to summer
evening concerts.
19. The CARRY A. NATION MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN, Douglas
Ave. just E. of Santa Fe St. on Union Station Plaza, was dedicated in 1918
by members of the Women s Christian Temperance Union. It consists of
a granite slab with a dedicatory plaque and a drinking fountain. The
memorial is a block east of the OLD CAREY HOTEL (now Eaton Hotel),
the barroom of which was raided in December 1900 by Mrs. Nation. As
related in her autobiography, Mrs. Nation "walked into the Carey bar
room and threw two rocks at the picture; then turned and smashed the
mirror that covered almost the entire side of the large room. Some men
drinking at the bar ran out ... I took the cane and broke up the side
board, which had on it all kinds of intoxicating drinks. Then I ran out
across the street to destroy another one (saloon)." The picture at which
Mrs. Nation "threw two rocks" was John Noble s (see ART) painting
of Cleopatra at the Bath, a work described by Mrs. Nation as "the life-
sized picture of a naked woman."
20. The McKNIGHT MEMORIAL, SW. corner of Grove St. and
Douglas Ave., was designed by Alexander Proctor and erected in 1931 in
honor of J. Hudson McKnight who donated the yo-acre tract on which
the nearby Wichita High School, East, is built. The memorial consists of
a life-sized bronze figure of a trapper leaning on his rifle beside the seated
figure of an Indian with bow and arrow in hand.
21. The HENRY J. ALLEN HOUSE (private), SW. corner of Roose
velt Ave. and Second St., designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is a two-story
structure of buff brick, built in the form of an irregular ell. Rising from
a slope, which is protected on the Second Street side by a retaining wall,
the house appears to be underslung in comparison with its setting, an
effect accentuated by the low-pitched tile roof. When built in 1920 this
residence was considered a radical departure in residential architecture.
Henry J. Allen, publisher of the Wichita Beacon (1907-28), and now
editor of the Topeka State Journal (1938), was elected to the Governor
ship of Kansas in 1918 while serving with the American Red Cross in
France. He was reelected in 1920. Nine years later he was appointed to
fill the unexpired term of United States Senator Charles Curtis, who had
been elected to the Vice Presidency.
22. The UNITED STATES VETERANS FACILITY (open by per
mission), NE. corner of Bleckley Drive and Kellogg St., was opened in
November 1935 as a general observation hospital for war veterans. The
fourteen buildings and their equipment are valued at $1,250,000. The
main building is a four-story Georgian Colonial structure with dormer
windows, stone quoins, and a white cupola. Bleckley Drive, which leads
304 CITIES AND TOWNS
to the main entrance, is named for Lieut. Erwin Bleckley, a native of
Wichita who was shot down in his plane while attempting to deliver ra
tions to the "Lost Battalion" in the World War.
23. The FIREMEN S AND POLICEMEN S MEMORIAL, on Mc
Lean Blvd. between Douglas Ave. and Second St., consists of a stone and
concrete wall with plaques that bear the names of Wichita firemen and
policemen killed in the line of duty. It was designed by Ed Forsblom and
built in 1934.
24. LAWRENCE STADIUM, NE. corner of Maple and Sycamore Sts.,
was built in 1934 and named for Robert Lawrence, Wichita pioneer. The
construction cost ($125,000) was shared by Wichita and the Federal
Government. The stadium has seats for 6,000 and standing room for
2,000. State and national semi-professional baseball tournaments are held
here annually.
25. FRIENDS UNIVERSITY (QUAKER), University and Hiram
Aves., founded in 1898 by the Society of Friends, is a co-educational in
stitution open to students of all denominations. The university has an
average enrollment of 400. The curriculum consists of courses in Music
and the Liberal Arts.
UNIVERSITY HALL, a five-story structure of red brick and native
stone, surmounted by a clock tower, is the main building on the ly-acre
campus. On its fourth floor is a MUSEUM (open 8-5 weekdays; Sun.
by appointment), which houses mound builder and Indian artifacts,
Chinese lacquer work and royal pewter, mineral and fossil specimen, and
Aztec and Inca pottery.
26. The WICHITA MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, 3.3 m. southeast of
Wichita on State 15, a mile square tract with concrete landing strips
4,800 feet long, is at the junction of two of the most important lighted
airways in the country.
The AIRPORT ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, a two-story structure of
buff brick, contains a passenger station, airport and airline offices, and a
radio station of the U. S. Weather Bureau which is operated in conjunc
tion with the Department of Commerce. An airplane motif figures in the
interior and exterior decorations of the structure. A passenger plane in
flight is depicted in a frieze above the main entrance. The building was
constructed in 1935 at a cost of $150,000.
27. The STEARMAN AIRCRAFT FACTORY (open by appoint
ment), opposite the Municipal Airport, is housed in a one-story structure
of buff brick. The factory produces training planes for the U. S. Army and
Navy.
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Santa Fe Lake, 19.6 m. (see Tour 5) ; Indian Peace Treaty Monument, 9-4 m.;
G. A. Stearns Stock-breeding Farm, 133 m.; Camp Bide-A-Wee, 17.3 m. (see Tour
9).
PART II!
;hways and Byways
TWO-YEAR-OLD TIMBER BELT PLANTING
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< #->-> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Tour i
(St. Joseph, Mo.) Marysville Belleville Norton St. Francis (Den
ver, Colo.) ; US 36.
Missouri Line to Colorado Line, 420 m.
St. Joseph & Grand Island R.R. parallels route between Elwood and Hiawatha;
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. between Elwood and Troy; St. Joseph & Grand
Island R.R. between Hiawatha and Hanover; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R.
between Hanover and Haddam; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. between Belle-
Mile and Norton; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy R.R. between Norton and Oberlin,
At wood and St. Francis.
Hard-surfaced roadbed over half the route, remainder graveled. Open all year ex
cept during severe snowstorms.
Usual accommodations.
Section a. MISSOURI LINE to BELLEVILLE, 166.5 m., US 36
This route traverses a region of apple orchards, and the wheat, alfalfa,
and corn fields of the fertile Glacial Uplands, the Blue Hills Uplands, and
the southern part of the great midwestern corn belt.
US 36 crosses the Missouri Line, m., i mile west of St. Joseph, Mo.
(see MO. Tour 1), on a high bridge over the tawny, clay-banked Mis
souri River.
ELWOOD, 0.5 m. (816 alt., 849 pop.), is a poplar-lined suburb, most
of its inhabitants working in St. Joseph, which was once smaller than El
wood and a rival of the town.
In a country first explored by French traders in 1719, Elwood was
founded by a promoter named Rose who in 1856 invested $10,000 in the
townsite and named it Roseport. By painting a glowing verbal picture of
the great inland port his town would be some day, Rose induced other
"investors to join him in forming a town company.
Roseport was growing rapidly when the company directors discovered
that Rose was an ex-convict. They drove him away and placed a man
named John B. Elwood in charge of the government, renaming the town
in his honor. Elwood grew in size and importance until it became the
largest city in Kansas Territory. In this flourishing river port the Great
Western Hotel, three stories high and 100 feet square, the first hostelry
in this region, was built. Abraham Lincoln, campaigning for the Presiden
tial nomination in 1859, chose Elwood as his first stop in Kansas.
In the spring of 1860 the shifting currents of the Missouri River cut
away a large portion of the Elwood townsite. The Great Western Hotel
was demolished, homes floated downstream, and large numbers of the
town s population moved away. Many went to St. Joseph, then recently
founded on the other side of the river.
307
308 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
On April 3, 1860 William H. Russell of Leavenworth instituted the
Pony Express (US 36 in general follows the route of the Pony Express as
far west as Marysville), with St. Joseph as the eastern terminus, and El-
wood as a wayside station. The Pony Express, first postal system to con
nect the eastern part of the United States and the Pacific Coast with any
degree of speed, had 190 relay stations along its 2,ooo-mile route. Some
of these, called home stations, had taverns for housing employees ; others,
called way stations, were merely stables. Riders were paid from $50 to
$150 a month, according to their ability and the risk and responsibility of
their assignment. Mail to California had heretofore been carried by sea
either around the Horn, or to the Isthmus of Panama and thence by ship
to San Francisco. Russell established the Pony Express to prove that mail
could be carried rapidly overland. He charged $5 for each half -ounce of
mail carried.
Until supplanted by the Overland Stages from Leavenworth and a trans
continental telegraph line established in 1861, the Pony Express made
two trips a week between St. Joseph and Sacramento. The first riders
started simultaneously at each end of the route. The fastest relay trip in
Pony Express history was made in seven days and seven hours.
After the Civil War Elwood again grew in population, but was dam
aged by repeated floods of the Missouri River. St. Joseph always stood
high and dry, as if waiting to receive the refugees from the rival town.
At one time the population of Elwood dropped as low as 100.
WATHENA, 6 m. (818 alt., 854 pop.), now the market for a large
horticultural area, was named for a Kickapoo Indian chief who proudly
allowed the settlers to hold church services in his wigwam. The town s
first settlers, who came in 1840, were "Squaw" Pete Cadue, a French
trader, and his Indian wife.
The townsite is dominated by the imposing ST. JOSEPH S CHURCH
(Roman Catholic). This structure, designed in the Gothic style, has a
large tower topped with a cross set with electric lights. When the present
church was built in 1935, the 800 members were assisted by Protestants
and other residents in meeting the cost of $35,000.
The improved highway between Wathena and Atchison was once the
roadbed of Kansas first railroad. Built in the i86o s, it entered the State
at Elwood, ran west from Wathena, then turned southwest to Atchison.
It was abandoned as unprofitable after a few years of use.
A roadhouse, 7.8 m., built in the form of a red apple, was erected to
advertise the Kansas orchard region.
TROY, 13.1 m. (1,093 alt., 1,042 pop.), the seat of Doniphan County,
in the rolling fertile hills of the Missouri River valley, is important as a
shipping point for local fruit-growers.
It is estimated that there are 10,000 acres of apple orchards in the
vicinity of Troy. Almost everyone in Troy and the surrounding country
participates in the annual Apple Blossom Festival (late April) and the
Apple Harvest Festival (early Sept.). There are agricultural exhibits,
parades, and carnival attractions.
APPLES FROM THE COOPERATIVE PACKING PLANT, TROY
Founded in 1855 as a Territorial county seat, Troy was incorporated in
1860.
The Kansas Chief, Troy s first newspaper, was owned and edited by
Sol Miller, author of the satirical poem "Paw Paws Ripe," which tells of
a "man of five-and-forty years with beard of grizzled brown," and his
family:
Nine boys and girls with rheumy eyes,
Stowed in with beds and tins,
Were all so nearly of a size,
They well might have been twins.
The mother as a penance sore,
For loss of youth and hope,
Seemed to have vowed, long years before.
To fast from comb and soap.
* * *
Don t tell me of your corn and wheat
What do I care for sich?
Don t say your schools is hard to beat,
And Kansas soil is rich.
Stranger, a year s been lost to me,
Searchin your Kansas siles,
And not a pawpaw did I see,
For miles, and miles, and miles!
310 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
The pawpaw, often called the Missouri banana, is a fruit shaped like
a fat cucumber, containing a number of large brown seeds imbedded in a
sweet pulp that tastes like a well-ripened banana. It is native to Missouri
but rare in Kansas except along the Missouri Line. Because Missourians
were fond of the fruit while New Englanders considered it nauseating,
the pawpaw, in the days before the Civil War, was a symbol of the Kansas
antislavery settlers scorn for proslavery Missourians.
When Abraham Lincoln, campaigning for the Presidential nomination
in 1859, made a speech in Troy the event received only brief mention in
the local papers, which were all opposed to him.
Around Troy are tobacco plantations, rare in Kansas, and on the south
edge of the town is a TOBACCO STOREHOUSE, a large barn-like frame
structure.
SPARKS, 22 m. (910 alt., 75 pop.), is a small roadside community,
once a railroad station near the parent town of Highland. Called High
land Station, it was promoted during the winter of 1869-1870 by a com
pany of railroad owners and investors from Highland. When the railroad
was discontinued, Highland Station declined. The remaining citizens of
the town in 1933 took a new name in honor of John Sparks, pioneer
leader.
Right from Sparks on State 7 is EAGLE SPRINGS (medicinal waters, swimming
pool), 4.5 m., a health and pleasure resort locally noted for the beauty of nearby
bluffs.
IOWA POINT, 6.3 m. (795 alt., 75 pop.), on the western edge of the broad
valley, was once the largest Kansas town on the Missouri River. It was founded in
1855 on land given to the Reverend S. W. Irvin by the Iowa Indians. Within a
year it had an estimated population of 3,000, but the intense partisan strife be
tween Free State and proslavery settlers soon disrupted the town s commercial life.
In 1857 it began an abrupt decline. Iowa Point was a station on a branch of the
Burlington R.R. between Sparks and Rulo, Nebr., until the line was abandoned in
1933. State 7 follows the old roadbed along the west bank of the Missouri River.
The town now consists of but a few houses and stores and the abandoned railroad
station.
WHITE CLOUD, 11.3 m. (1,037 alt., 476 pop.), an old river town facing the
wide sweep of the curving Missouri River, has a background of tall wooded bluffs.
This village, named for a chief of the Iowa tribe of Indians, was developed by
booster chicanery and ballyhoo typical of many boom towns in Kansas. In 1856
John Utt and Enoch Spaulding, two of a group of promoters from Oregon, Mo.,
expecting that all the Indian lands would be available for purchase that year,
selected the present site of White Cloud for a town and pre-empted it, although
it was still owned by the Indians. The company had $45,000 in paid-up capital
stock and started to erect a town; but one of the members, R. J. Gatling (who
later invented the Gatling gun), pointed out that if they built their city on the
Indians land, the Indians could legally sell it to rival investors. So they delayed
extensive improvements until the time when they could buy the land. The settle
ment had a ferry landing, a store, a frame house, and several log shacks when in
June 1857, the promoters purchased the site from the United States Government.
They announced a great auction sale of town lots for July 4 ; advertised a barbecue,
plenty of liquor, band music, dancing, and patriotic oratory, and arranged steam
boat excursions from other Missouri River towns. Actors, bartenders, barbers, and
circus "spielers" were hired to impersonate investors. The "sooners" who had come
to the townsite and recklessly put up buildings without acquiring title to the lots,
lost their property in the auction. When a desirable lot was put up for sale, the
TOUR I 311
own owners employees outbid the building s owners, so that the promoters, by
buying from themselves and paying the money to themselves, acauired all the
sooners buildings free, retained the most desirable lots, and permitted the outsiders
o buy the adjoining property. The bona fide sales amounted to $23,798; sales of
:;ood, whiskey, and steamboat tickets to 6,000 visitors amounted to a similar sum.
Thus the promoters netted a profit of $30,000 or $40,000, still had their $45,000
of capital, and owned the best lots in town.
After the decline of Iowa Point, White Cloud succeeded its downstream neighbor
is the river metropolis of Doniphan County, but suffered a slump when railroad
development ruined the steamboat traffic on the Missouri. Sol Miller founded the
White Cloud Chief here in 1857. An old BRICK BUILDING (L), at the western
:nd of the business district, was built by Miller in the late i86o s and occupied
:>y the Chief until the paper was moved to the county seat in 1872. It is now oc-
rupied by a grocery store. On the side of a hill overlooking the business district one
Dlock (R) from Main St. is the POULET HOUSE (private), a pretentious three-story
structure of red brick, built in 1880 by Alexis Poulet, White Cloud banker. It is a
garish blend of Victorian and French architecture, with a gabled cupola rising
ibove the roof and balconies of iron grillwork in the rear at the second and third
floors. Poulet, a Frenchman from New Orleans, settled at Iowa Point and conducted
i profitable mercantile business; he came to White Cloud in 1858. His son, Acton
Poulet, who was born and reared here, served as representative of an American oil
company in the Orient from 1909 until 1922 when he was appointed United States
Consul at Saignon, French Indo-China. The building is used as a rooming house by
its present owner.
Right from Main St., 0.4 m. on a winding drive up a steep incline to the CREST
OF A BLUFF that affords a view of three States Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska
and of the Missouri River, which flows 200 feet below. The White Cloud area con
tains many Indian burial mounds and ruins of villages built by the Pawnee and the
Kansa (Kaw).
HIGHLAND, 26.2 m. (856 alt, 788 pop.), a quiet, old-fashioned
town amid green hills, is the seat of the Presbyterian Church in Kansas
and the home of the oldest institution of higher learning in the State.
In 1837 Highland was part of an Indian reservation for the Iowa, Sac,
and Fox tribes. Two miles northeast of the present townsite was a Presby
terian mission that had been founded for the Indians by "Father Irvin"
(the Reverend S. M. Irvin), a Presbyterian missionary. There were many
white settlers in the region by 1854 when two promoters Gen. John
Bayless and J. P. Johnson chose this site for a town and named it High
land.
A log school, built in the settlement in 1856, was placed shortly after
ward under the control of the Highland Presbytery and named the High
land Presbyterian Academy. In response to a petition of the trustees, the
Kansas Territorial Legislature in 1857 grantee! the school a charter under
the name of HIGHLAND UNIVERSITY.
In addition to the president s residence, the plant includes a dormitory
with 17 rooms; the main building, a two-story red brick structure erected
in 1858, and now enlarged and modernized to house the library and
conservatory; and the new college building, a two-story structure of
pressed brick, which contains the president s office, auditorium, labora
tories, and recitation rooms. Highland is a co-educational junior college
with an annual enrollment of about 150.
Near the center of town is the HIGHLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, a
plain, substantial structure, built in 1914 to replace a frame building
312 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
erected in the late i88o s and destroyed by fire in October 1913. The
church traces its origin to the old Presbyterian mission where it was or
ganized in 1843 w * tn a membership of six persons. The Reverend S. M.
Irvin was its first minister.
HIAWATHA, 40.8 m. (1,095 alt., 3,302 pop.), seat of Brown County,
set among fruit trees and flower gardens, is one of the most beautiful
towns on the Kansas prairies.
Its sky line is dominated by an attractive courthouse designed in the
Greek Revival style. Hiawatha is one of the few Territorial boom towns
that survived and prospered after Kansas had become a State. Founded in
1857, ft became the seat of Brown County in 1859 and has grown steadily
since.
The annual Hiawatha Hallowe en Frolic was organized by Mrs. John
Kerbs, an early resident, to stop the Hallowe en pranks played on her by
youngsters. The feature of the event is a parade, usually two or three miles
long, which includes comedians hired by the chamber of commerce, com
petitive flower floats, and exhibitions by local boys and girls. After the
parade a dance is held in the city auditorium.
Hiawatha s Fall Festival, usually held in September, includes agricul
tural exhibits, a street carnival, and dances. An annual flower show, also
originated by Mrs. Kerbs and sponsored by the Hiawatha Chamber of
Commerce, is held later in the fall.
In the HIAWATHA MORRILL FREE LIBRARY is a small HISTORICAL MU
SEUM (open 2-5 ; 7-9; except Sun. and holidays).
In MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY at the southeast edge of Hiawatha, is the
DAVIS MEMORIAL, an unusual monument with a vault, pavilion and eleven
life-size portrait statues, carved in Italian marble. It was erected, after his
wife s death, by John M. Davis, a retired farmer. Davis, who is still living
(1938), expects to be buried beside his wife.
The first pair of statues shows the Davis couple newly wedded. The
next four sets show them at later stages in their married life. The last set
of portraits before the death of Mrs. Davis reveals the couple as aged
and weary, but sitting very erect on over-stuffed parlor armchairs of mar
ble. Mrs. Davis hair, still abundant and wavy, is combed back and
fastened in a Psyche knot. Her husband of 50 years has heavy hair and a
flowing beard.
The final statue, of granite instead of marble, shows Mr. Davis sitting
alone in his great armchair beside which stands another bearing the legend
The Vacant Chair. Here the old lover, apparently past 80, has shaggy eye
brows, a longer beard than before, and looks like the portraits of George
Bernard Shaw. The ten marble statues were carved in Rome by Italian
artists who were sent photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Davis. The final
granite image of the husband was done by a Vermont sculptor. This cou
ple, whose married life is so enduringly recorded, had no children.
Hiawatha is at the junction with US 73 (see Tour 12 A).
FAIRVIEW, 52.1 m. (1,240 alt., 367 pop.), is a comparatively mod
ern .and thriving agricultural trade center with a small hotel in the center
of town and a TOURIST CAMP on US 36 just outside the city limits.
TOUR I 313
At Fairview is the southern junction with US 75 (see Tour 11). Be
tween Fairview and Sabetha, US 36 and US 75 are one route.
SABETHA, 59.2 m. (1,300 alt., 2,332 pop.), an agricultural trading
point, has well-kept homes and a neat business district. According to
legend, the town was named by a pious Biblical student who reached this
point in the 1850*5 on his way to California. One of his oxen died here
on a day which he calculated to be the Hebrew Sabbath so he named his
camp Sabetha.
The genesis of Sabetha, however, was a settlement called Albany Hill,
established in 1857 by pioneers from Castle Creek, N. Y., who named it
for the capital of their native State. Albany Hill was two miles north of
Camp Sabetha, but when a railroad was built through the county in 1871
and a station erected at the old camp site, Albany Hill s inhabitants moved
to the more advantageous place.
In the SABETHA POST OFFICE is a mural by Albert T. Reid, former
resident of Concordia, Kans., which depicts a stagecoach and a Pony Ex
press rider.
Right from Sabetha on an improved road is ALBANY, 2.2 m., remnant of a Free
State town. The two-story frame house with a hip roof (L) was an important sta
tion on the Underground Railroad. John Brown, the violent abolitionist, is said to
have spent his last night (February i, 1859) in the Territory of Kansas at Albany.
Left from Sabetha on an improved road is the SITE OF LOG CHAIN TAVERN,
15 m., on what is now Log Chain Farm, beside the route of the old Fort Leaven-
worth military road. The tavern was named for a nearby road so boggy that a log
chain was frequently used to pull out vehicles caught in the mire. In 1858 Mark
Twain and Horace Greeley were guests at the tavern, which was noted throughout
the West for its hospitality. Just before the Civil War it was used by John Brown
and Jim Lane as a station on the Underground Railroad. Local legend has it that
Abraham Lincoln and William H. Seward spent a night at the tavern in the late
autumn of 1859. Most historians discredit this, however, and insist that Lincoln
was never this far west.
LAKE SABETHA (fishing, free picnic and campground), 65.5 m. (R),
covering 115 acres, was built in 1936 with the help of Federal funds as
a town water supply. It is surrounded by natural forest land.
ONEIDA, 68.5 m. (1,217 a ^-> 22 4 PP-)> was founded in 1873 ky
Col. Cyrus Shinn of Virginia on a plot of 400 acres purchased for the
promotion of a great city. Sixty-four years after its founding it had in
creased its first recorded population by only ten or twelve inhabitants.
Colonel Shinn gave a free lot to everyone who would settle here, but
forbade the sale of liquor, thus creating one of the first prohibition towns
in Kansas. Its original name of Shinntown was changed to Oneida as soon
as the colonel died.
SENECA, 75.3 m. (1,150 alt., 1,864 PP-)> seat f Nemaha County,
on the banks of the sluggish Nemaha River, is very similar in appearance
to Sabetha; its sky line is dominated by church spires.
Seneca was founded in 1857 to rival Richmond, a town three miles
away on a feeder of the Oregon Trail, also called the California Trail.
Seneca boosters planted oats in a section of the trail and detoured it
through their town. When the oats came up with the first spring grasses,
the old trail had the appearance of having been abandoned. Thus immi-
314 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
grant traffic was brought to Seneca. A few years later, when a Pony Ex
press station was established here, and later when this became an Over
land stage depot, Richmond people moved to Seneca.
In 1921-1922 Seneca was the home of Jean Harlow, the platinum
blonde motion-picture actress. Miss Harlow (then Harlean Carpenter) at
tended the elementary school.
The old SMITH HOTEL, at the corner of S. Main and 4th Sts., is a
two-story building, now a rooming house. This structure, moved from the
corner of N. Main and yth Sts., was an inn serving both Pony Express
riders and passengers on the Overland stages.
Three feeders of the Oregon-California Trail either met or crossed in
the vicinity of Seneca. One from St. Joseph crossed Baker s Ford, a few
miles north of town; another ran directly west through Seneca to Marys-
ville; and the Fort Leavenworth Military Road came in just west of town.
Left from Seneca on State 63, graveled, to the junction with a dirt road, 1 m.;
L. here to MAXWELL SPRINGS, 1.2 m., once a watering place on the old Over
land Trail, now the Seneca city water supply. Nearby are ruts left by early day
covered wagons.
On State 63 at 5.5 m. is the NEMAHA COUNTY STATE PARK, including
582 acres of natural woodland and a 356-acre lake (fishing).
BAILEYVILLE, 80.1 m. (1,293 alt., 636 pop.), a little prairie town
founded in 188o and settled largely by Germans, was formerly known as
Haytown because it was a shipping place for prairie hay.
At 94.6 m. is the junction with an improved road, State 99.
Right on State 99 is BEATTIE, 1 m. (1,292 alt., 434 pop.), one of the first
towns in Kansas to have a city government composed entirely of women (1899).
Home of the late Linden Kirlin, inventor of farm implements, it is interesting for
its huge limestone quarry.
An old PONY EXPRESS BARN, 4 m., is a sturdy structure built of local granite.
MARYSVILLE, 106.8 m. (1,154 alt., 4,013 pop.) (see Tour 10), is at
the junction with US 77 (see Tour 10).
At 110.1 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road is BREMEN, 4 m. (1,327 alt., 82 pop.), a tiny community of
decaying old buildings of German architectural influence.
Left from Bremen on a dirt road to the PONY EXPRESS STATION, 7.5 m., now a
farmhouse. The house, a frame structure, is weathered and dilapidated, its un-
painted siding warped and sagging, its windows askew. Beside it is a stable of stone
with a wooden loft whose hewn timbers reveal the marks of a broad axe, although
they are now blackened with age and honeycombed with dry rot. From this mow,
hay has been forked down to horses for more than 75 years.
West of Marysville a short series of hills borders the highway. On one
of these hills is a large boulder, visible for a long distance. It is said to
have served as a trail marker for Indians.
At 117.8 m. is the junction with State I5E, improved.
Right on State I5E is HANOVER, 3 m. (1,232. alt., 880 pop.), a village of
scattered houses and stores resembling the outskirts of a large city. Hanover, most
of whose settlers came from Germany, was founded in 1869 and incorporated as a
third-class city in 1872. It was named for the former home of its first settler, G. H.
Hollenburg, who was for years its leading citizen. The Days of Forty-Nine cele
bration, most important event of the year locally, is sponsored by the Hanover Busi-
TOUR I 315
ness Men s Club and lasts for three days. To advertise it, local men allow their
whiskers to grow and the women wear old-fashioned sunbonnets.
Hanover was, for a time, the home of Prof. Don Carlos Taft, father of Lorado
. aft (1860-1936), the sculptor, who frequently visited his parents here. Hamlin
Garland, the author, was married to the sculptor s sister, Zuline Taft, in Hanover
in 1899.
In the city park is the usual PONY EXPRESS MONUMENT, a block of granite four
feet tall bearing a Pony Express marker. In the Hanover Cemetery is a MONUMENT
TO G. H. HOLLENBURG, a bluish-gray shaft capped with a large granite ball. Hol-
L-nburg was appointed to the Emigrant Counsel in 1874. He died and was buried
it sea en route to Germany in July of that year.
The NEUGEBAUER ROCK GARDEN (open) is 60 feet wide and 100 feet long.
Relics in this garden include Indian rubbing stones, skin scrapers, and a totem
pole; also specimens of petrified wood from thirteen States. In the center of the
garden is a 3,ooo-pound rock castle modeled by the owner from a picture of a
medieval European fortress.
In the HANOVER HERALD PLANT is a collection of relics from the former Han
over House, a stagecoach tavern built in 1870 and operated until 1880 when State
prohibition drove many of its patrons to Nebraska. Noted for its good food the
Hanover House sheltered hundreds of wealthy Germans seeking land in the new
country. In the eleven volumes of its register, included in the Herald collection, are
the names of many who played leading parts in the development of Kansas and
Nebraska. Two dinner bells from the Hanover House have holes worn in the side
l>y their "Dongers" or clappers.
The old RANCH HOUSE OF C. H. HOLLENBURG, 5.4 m., was built in late 1850 $.
This long narrow structure, first known as Cottonwood Ranch, was a stagecoach
depot visited by Mormons in their trek westward to Utah. Around the house,
where the prairie has never been plowed, are ruts left by wagons on the overland
trail.
The Nebraska Line is at 12 m.; L. here on a dirt road to a granite OREGON
TRAIL MARKER, 15 m., at the place where Washington County, Kans., adjoins Gage
;nd Jefferson Counties, Nebr. Triangularly shaped, each of its sides faces one of
the counties.
WASHINGTON, 129 m. (1335 alt., 1,370 pop.), is built around the
strikingly attractive WASHINGTON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, one of the few
civic buildings in Kansas designed in the modern style. It was built in
1933 at a cost of $87,500 after the old courthouse and sections of the
business and residence districts had been destroyed by a cyclone, July 4,
1932. Because most of the population had gathered in the city park for a
celebration when the storm struck, the property destruction was not ac
companied by a heavy loss of life. After the storm Washington enjoyed a
building boom at the expense of insurance companies.
Largely an agricultural shipping and trading center, Washington s main
industry is the manufacture of butter and cheese. These products are
shipped to cities in Kansas and Nebraska.
Washington was founded in the i86o s by a company of townsite pro
moters who named the town in honor of the first President of the United
States. The country around Washington was first explored by the S. H.
Long expedition in 1820.
The COUNTY HOME for the dependent aged, S. 2r\ I St., two blocks
west of the First National Bank, a two-story white frame house, is the
boyhood home of Paul Swan, chief mechanical engineer of the Byrd ex
pedition to the South Pole.
A county stock show is held at Washington annually in September.
316 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Left from Washington on State I5W, a graveled road, is ASH CREEK, 2.5 m.
Near the bridge is MORMON SPRING, one of the many small springs in the bed of
the creek. Mormon Spring is identified by a large sandstone rock, on which is
carved a wagon wheel and the names of numerous Latter Day Saints who stopped
here for water in the middle 1850 $ while on their way to Utah.
MORROWVILLE, 139.4 m. (1,335 alt, 246 pop.), founded in 1884,
was named for its founder, Cal Morrow, State Senator (1876-1890). Un
til 1896 the town was called Morrow, but its name was changed to Mor-
rowville after the railroad company had complained that its ticket agents
were confused when travelers asked for "a ticket to Morrow (tomorrow)."
At 160 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Left on this road is CUBA, 2 m. (1,577 alt., 403 pop.), often called the
Bohemian capital of Kansas because it is the center of the largest Bohemian colony
in the State. Its main street, modernized only by filling stations and SOKOL HALL,
has nearly all the buildings that were put up when the town was founded in 1884.
Saturday night in Cuba is reminiscent of one in an Old World village. Hundreds
of farm folk sit in parked cars to drink beer and eat sausage, laughing, and talking
in English and Bohemian. Some of them smoke their long, curved-stemmed Bo
hemian pipes, while orchestral strains float out from the dance floor in Sokol Hall.
Cuba was founded by Bohemians and Swedes in 1873 approximately 2 miles
south and west of the present townsite, but residents moved their store buildings
and homes in order to be on the railroad when the Burlington and Missouri River
built through here in the middle i88o s. In Cuba the various racial stocks and sec
tional cultures include Bohemians, Swedes, Scotch, Irish, Spanish, French Canadians,
and Yankees from Massachusetts and Vermont.
Every winter, series of plays are presented by the third and fourth generations of
the Bohemian residents. The players take particular pride in being letter perfect in
the Bohemian language.
BELLEVILLE, 166.5 m. (1,514 alt., 2,383 pop.) (see Tour 9), is at
the junction with US 81 (see Tour 9).
Section b. BELLEVILLE to COLORADO LINE, 253 .5 m., US 36
The country between Belleville, m., and Phillipsburg is a continuation
of the high, rolling Blue Hills Uplands. West of Phillipsburg, in the
High Plains region, the landscape becomes smooth and monotonous;
marks of erosion are less frequent, and watercourses are rare. This is still
in the corn belt, though much wheat is also raised in spite of periodic
droughts.
Between Oberlin and Atwood the rugged country is the result of ero
sion; green cactus and Spanish bayonet pierce the whiteness of rirnrock
arroyos and magnesium limestone hills. Cut through hillsides and bridged
over canyons, the highway resembles a Roman aqueduct in a region of
foothills.
West of Atwood the terrain levels out into a high, flat plain.
SCANDIA, 10 m. (1,530 alt., 608 pop.), an agrarian market town
with a poultry hatchery as its principal industrial plant, was founded in
the late i86o s by a Swedish immigrant company from Chicago, 111., and
settled by a colony of Scandinavians. Most of the Swedes have moved
elsewhere and Scandia is now inhabited by descendants of native-born
Americans.
TOUR I 317
In the P. T. STROM HOME (open) is a small but interesting COLLEC
TION OF INDIAN RELICS, old guns, and miscellaneous pieces.
The Fort Riley to Fort Kearny (Nebr.) military road, used by Federal
t-oops sent out to fight Indians, once crossed what is now Scandia.
On a hill just east of Scandia are the marked GRAVES OF NINETEEN
IMMIGRANT MORMONS, killed here in an Indian battle.
COURTLAND, 17.1 m. (1,501 alt., 430 pop.), a small, neat village,
I ke Scandia, was settled largely by Swedes. Its name was originally
spelled "Cortland." It was incorporated as a third-class city in 1892, and
is now important only as a railroad shipping point.
1. Right from Courtland on a dirt road to the junction with another dirt road,
r .5 m.; L, here to the SWIHART EXPERIMENTAL FARM (visitors welcome), 14 m.
As many as 1,500 different crops have been raised here in a single year; specimens
of these crops are frequently displayed at exhibitions throughout Kansas.
2. Left from Courtland on a dirt road to the junction with another dirt road,
6 m.; R. on this road to REPUBLIC COUNTY STATE PARK (hunting, fishing,
picnicking), 6.5 m. Its lake, comprising 700 acres, is maintained by the State Fish
and Game Commission but unlike most Kansas State- and county-controlled lakes,
s looting is allowed on part of the reserve.
FORMOSO, 23.2 m. (1,515 alt., 381 pop.), is a typical western Kansas
railroad town, partly shielded from the constant prairie winds by a low
range of hills to the northwest. It was founded in the late 1870*5 and
named Omio, the lament used by Indians who were forced by settlers to
abandon their tribal camping ground on this site. When a railroad came
in 1884 the town was given its present name.
MANKATO, 34.4 m. (1,787 alt., 1,404 pop.), seat of Jewell County,
in an attractive setting of evergreen, ash, and elm trees, is the market cen
ter for a highly productive grain and livestock area.
The JEWELL COUNTY COURTHOUSE, three stories high, of modern de
sign and constructed of local limestone, is the work of Joseph W. Radotin-
sky of Kansas City, former State architect. It was completed in 1938 as a
WPA project, costing $125,000.
The original name, Jewell Center, was changed to Mankato shortly
after the town s founding, to avoid confusion between this and Jewell
City, an older town in the same county.
US 36 enters the LIMESTONE VALLEY SOIL EROSION PROJECT
at 41.5 m. where demonstrations of several methods of erosion control are
being conducted in a district 22 miles long and 15 miles wide. Five hun
dred drought-stricken farmers have been given work here, and more than
$500,000 in Federal funds have been expended.
SMITH CENTER, 65.3 ;//. (1,804 alt., 1,736 pop.), seat of Smith
County, varies the usual courthouse-square pattern of western county-seat
towns by scattering pioneer business buildings and residences along a
mile-long street. The old red brick structure housing the weekly Pioneer
exposes blank walls along a side street in the same block with the modern
tapestry-brick Community Hall and City Library.
L. T. Reese, a founder of the town and an organizer of the county,
si ill lives (1938) in Smith Center, and takes great pleasure in telling with
318 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
utmost frankness his version of the town s history: "I was advised by
older heads to take a homestead in the exact center of the county with the
aim of making it the county seat. I came here with a partner and we filed
on 320 acres at a time when the only settlements in the county were along
the Solomon River in the southwestern part of the county. The little
town of Cedarville on that river expected to be the county seat."
To create a county the legislature had to designate the county area and
give it a name. Then a minimum of 600 bona fide settlers, who had estab
lished residences, "organized" the county that is, appointed temporary
county officers and set up a temporary county seat. Bonds were next issued
to pay salaries and build roads, bridges, and a courthouse.
"A dozen of us settlers went to Topeka to see the Governor and or
ganize the county," continues Reese, "but when we were admitted to his
presence we were informed that a dozen settlers were not enough; it re
quired hundreds. We left the Governor s office very dejected, but were
accosted by a man who said: Why don t you put the names of all your
friends in the East on the list as bona fide settlers, then organize Smith
County and go home and wait for these settlers to come? We had a terri
ble task in thinking up 600 names, but finally we got it done. Then we ap
pointed our county officers and went back to have the Governor confirm
them . . . but we found that our three county commissioners all lived in
one district. We had to have one from each of three districts, and we
didn t have any men in the other two districts. We were disheartened
again and were ready to go home beaten until someone promised that if
we would pay a certain cash honorarium to him we could falsify the
residences of two of our members to conform to law, and he would guar
antee that the Governor would not notice the irregularity. . . . We had
the money, so we paid, and went home with the county organization ; my
farm was the county seat."
In the SMITH CENTER LIBRARY is a small HISTORICAL MUSEUM (open
9-5 weekdays), containing a chair made of cottonwood by the town s first
settler, and a drawing of a "clog and chunk" fence invented by a Smith
County pioneer, Phil Breon, and used on his farm in lieu of barbwire.
The "clog and chunk" fence consisted of a single strand of wire sus
pended between two posts. A cord about ten feet long, attached to the
wire with a slip knot, would, when fastened to the right forefeet of horses
or cattle, allow the animals to graze the length of the wire. An ox yoke
and other implements that belonged to the "clog and chunk" fence in
ventor are also in the museum.
The words of "Home on the Range," voted a "hit" tune in 1934 and
once described in a press conference by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
as his favorite ballad, were written in 1873 by Dr. Brewster Higley who
homesteaded a claim on Beaver Creek in Smith County. Dan Kelly who
lived near the town of Harlan in the same county composed the music.
"Home on the Range" became locally popular; it was played by dance
orchestras and sung around cowboy campfires. So far as is known, both
words and music were first published in 1910 in Songs of the Cattle Trail
TOUR I 319
ind Cow Camp, compiled by John A. Lomax. In 1934 William Goodwin
and his wife, of Tempe, Arizona, filed suit in the United States District
Court of New York against radio networks and motion-picture producers.
The Goodwins asked damages amounting to $500,000, claiming that they
had written and copyrighted "Home on the Range" in 1905 under the
title "My Arizona Home." The defendants instructed their attorney, Sam
uel Moanfeldt, to find out who really wrote it. Moanfeldt discovered that
Lomax had learned the song from the lips of cowboys, so he went to
Dodge City, Kans., and interviewed old-timers who made affidavit that
they had sung the song in 1880, more than 25 years before Goodwin
claimed he had written it. Still seeking the real author Moanfeldt traveled
through Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and
Oregon before, on the advice of a Kansas woman, he came in 1936 to
Smith Center and was directed to the home of Clarence (Cal) Harlan,
then 87 years old. Mrs. Harlan is a sister-in-law of Dan Kelly; Harlan, at
the age of 24, was the first to sing the song in public.
"Pa," said Mrs. Harlan, "get down your guitar and let s see if we can t
sing it for the gentleman." Accompanying themselves on guitar and banjo
the old couple sang the song as they had first sung it 63 years before.
While they sang, the lawyer turned to their neighbors and said: "This
proves the point. I ve got that lawsuit beaten."
He photographed the old couple and made a phonographic recording
of their singing. This record, together with the testimony or forty of their
neighbors, proved that the song had belonged to Smith County before it
belonged to the Nation at large.
At 66.1 m. is the junction with a private dirt road (visitors may enter).
Right on this road is PLASTER S CASTLE (unoccupied), and the SITE OF SITTING
BULL S FORT, 1.5 m. Generations before white men came to Kansas, this point was
a center of trade between Indian tribes. Flint knives and arrowheads were fashioned
here and the Indians made a lodge of a soapstone mound by hollowing it out with
flint tools. In 1867, when Sitting Bull leagued many Midwestern Indian tribes for
a last stand against the whites, this stone lodge was converted into a fort and used
as a hiding place for steel arrowheads, scalping knives, and guns that had been
illegally sold to the Indians by manufacturers agents. A deadline extending south
west to the desert and northeast to Canada ran through the fort. Sitting Bull
warned white settlers not to cross that line. There are some old-timers in Smith
Center who remember Sitting Bull s ultimatum.
After the Indians had been subdued and put on reservations, this tract was home-
steaded in 1872 by William A. Plaster, who dreamed of building a castle. Making
his home in the old soapstone dugout, Plaster began working on his quixotic
project. When it was only one-story high his funds failed, so he abandoned his
Jream of turreted towers and roofed the building over. Rectangular in shape with
i flat roof, Plaster s Castle, once the largest building in Smith County, relieves the
monotony of a desolate hillside.
At 69.3 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road is REAMSVILLE, 11 m. (1,812 alt., 27 pop.), a decadent
prairie hamlet with an old DUTCH MILL that dominates the landscape for miles
.iround. Built of hand-hewn beams, this mill was started in 1882 by Charles G.
Schwartz. It had cogwheels of wood and fans with a spread of 72 feet. When
operating, it ground corn meal and graham flour on a toll basis for local farmers.
320 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
PHILLIPSBURG, 95.3 m. (1,939 alt, 1,543 pop.), seat of Phillips
County, has a courthouse square with an oasis-like park irrigated by the
streams and springs that furnish the town s water supply.
Phillipsburg was named for Col. William A. Phillips, early day writer,
politician, and colonel of the Cherokee regiment of the Civil War. Desig
nated as the county seat by the Kansas Legislature, Phillipsburg was plat
ted in 1872 and incorporated as a third-class city in 1880.
This region averages only 18 inches of rain annually, but the rich black
topsoil in Phillips County is underlain with a deep porous clay which
stores water like a sponge. Consequently, there are green fields of corn
around Phillipsburg when the corn in other parts of Kansas has been
seared by the sun.
Two blocks south of the Bissel Hotel is the WINSHOP ROCK GARDEN
AND LOG CABIN (open), built by an 83-year-old man to resemble the
foothills of the Rocky Mountains in miniature. The landscape contains
figures of antelope, deer, elk, coyotes, and bears ; toy swans and frogs float
on the ponds ; in the lakes are live fish. At night the rock garden is illumi
nated by colored electric lights.
Two blocks east of Main St. on the highway (R) is still another ROCK
GARDEN (open), unusual for its massive rocks rather than its plants. It
was built by a local railroadman.
A SWIMMING POOL (free), at the west edge of Phillipsburg, is filled
with natural salt water the remnant of a prehistoric sea left bottled up
in a clay bed.
The annual rodeo (1st week in Aug.), attracts about 14,000 people
who camp near the town in order to admire the roping, riding, or bull-
dogging of longhorn steers, or be amused by the lassoing of jackrabbits.
Contestants come from Wyoming and Montana to display their skill.
At 97.3 m. US 36 crosses a TIME ZONE BOUNDARY. West of this point
Mountain Standard Time is used; watches of west-bound tourists should
be set back one hour.
FORT BISSEL (R), 100.8 m., a rough rock structure, was hurriedly
erected in the spring of 1873 when the commander of Fort Hays sent a
military scout to warn settlers that warring Apache might be expected any
hour. The Apache, however, did not attack.
At 122.4 m. is the junction with US 83 (see Tour 8). Between this
place and a point at 135.2 m. US 36 and US 83 are one route.
At 123.9 m. is the junction with an improved road which traverses a.
spacious lawn of buffalo grass lined with trees and flowers.
Right on this road is the STATE TUBERCULOSIS SANITARIUM (permission to visit
is granted in the administration building, first building from the road), 0.3 m.,.
opened in 1913, as a sixteen-bed hospital. It was built by the State on land pur
chased by citizens of Norton. It now includes an administration building, a 268-bed
hospital, a power plant, a greenhouse, several barns, and other farm buildings.
NORTON, 129 m. (2,275 alt, 2 7^7 PP-)> seat f Norton County, Is
the center of a large agricultural and dairying region. Its buildings are
modern and its business district consists of several streets.
Norton had its beginning in Billingsville, a town founded by and
TOUR I 321
named for N. H. Billings. In the same year that Billingsville was platted
(1872), it was designated as a temporary county seat by means of a fraud
ulent petition. Settlers later organized the Norton Town Company and
laid out Norton about 500 yards northeast of Billingsville. The town
company s plat was erroneously recorded. W. B. Rogers, who owned an
adjoining tract, attempted to file it as the town of Norton. In the long
court fight that followed, many irregularities in the town company s rec
ords were found. At the conclusion of the case Billingsville was forced to
reorganize and file its plat as an addition to the town of Norton.
The NORTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY IRON FOUNDRY (open on
application), casting farm-machinery parts, has an international market.
ELM WOOD PARK (scenic drives, wading pools, picnic grounds), one
block east and two blocks south of the post office, is bounded on the south
by Prairie Dog Creek. Comprising forty-five acres, this park was built by
Federal relief labor at a cost of more than $30,000. The Norton County
Fair, which attracts large crowds from all parts of northwestern Kansas,
is held here annually the first week in September.
At the southern edge of Norton is a SWIMMING POOL (open daily in
summer), a roller-skating rink, and a dance pavilion (dances 1 to 4 nights
weekly).
At the northern edge of town, beside the Norton Cemetery, is the junc
tion with a dirt road.
Left on this road is ROBINSON DRAW, 1 m., which extends northwest and
southeast along the creek at this point. It was here that W. W. Robinson settled
with his family in 1873. While building the large, stone ROBINSON HOUSE (R)
near the road, the family lived in a nearby dugout. Southwest of the house, on top
of a bluff is a NATURAL ROCK WELL (permission to visit granted at stone house),
discovered by W. W. Robinson while he was quarrying stone. This narrow crevice,
walled by rock, always contains from 8 to 10 feet of water and is believed to have
its source in an underground watercourse.
NORCATUR, 147.3 m. (2,631 alt., 524 pop.), a wind-swept village
of the High Plains, is dominated by a large red brick building (L), the
Norcatur Rural High School.
First named Rockwell City, the village was founded a short distance
northeast of its present site by a shrewd pioneer woman, Mrs. William
Rockwell. When the Lincoln Land Company purchased a townsite south
east of her unsuccessful Rockwell City, Mrs. Rockwell, learning that the
company was allied with the railroads and purchased townsites only where
the railroads planned to have stations, abandoned Rockwell City and was
among the first to buy lots in the new townsite, called Norcatur because
of its proximity to the Norton-Decatur County line.
In 1878, just after a band of Cheyenne under Chief Dull Knife had
gone on the warpath, a young man riding a sweating horse dashed into
Norcatur, waving a bloody hand.
The Indians! The Indians!" he shouted, as he spurred his horse.
The settlers converted the sod house of Isaac Whitaker into Fort Whit-
aker; a log cabin belonging to Sidney Case, hastily equipped with one gun
and several pitchforks, became Fort Case. The women and children were
322 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
crowded into these two "forts." Captains Case and Whitaker began drill
ing the men for action. Told to extinguish the lights when they heard any
loud noise, the women mistook Captain Whitaker s authoritative com
mands to his men for the shouts of attacking savages.
"The yelling of those women would have put a pack of coyotes to
shame," one old-timer averred. "We had to go shut em up fore we could
go on with our drills."
After three tense days it was learned that the young man who gave the
alarm had accidentally wounded himself with his gun while drunk. The
Indians were a product of his imagination. Somewhat sheepishly, the citi
zens resumed their daily routine.
Norcatur is the home of Eldon Auker, American League pitcher and a
former Kansas State College athlete.
In the OBERLIN CEMETERY (L), 164.1 m., a granite monument com
memorates the settlers killed in the LAST INDIAN MASSACRE IN KANSAS.
In September 1878, Cheyenne led by Chief Dull Knife murdered more
than a score of persons, including six members of the Laing family, whose
rude tombstones of native rock are near the monument.
OBERLIN, 165.5 m. (2,561 alt, 1,629 pop.), seat of Decatur County,
is an up-to-date, prosperous hillside village of substantial buildings. Its
residents possess the friendliness and cordiality typical of the West.
SMICK MEMORIAL PARK (athletic field, picnic grounds and playgrounds),
at the southeastern edge of town, three blocks east of the courthouse, is
named in honor of E. B. (Cal) Smick, an educator in the community.
Landscaped and planted with shrubs, flowers, and trees, the lo-acre park
is in pleasing contrast wtih its semiarid surroundings.
The annual Armistice Day celebration here includes track events and
baseball or football games. A pavement dance in the evening completes
the activities.
Right from Oberlin on US 183 is the 48i-acre DECATUR COUNTY STATE
PARK NO. 2, (fishing), 1.5 m., with a i6o-acre stocked lake.
Many sheep and cattle graze on the hilly pastureland that surrounds
Oberlin. The most prolific form of vegetation is the Russian thistle, a
blessing in time of drought when no other green succulent herb will flour
ish. During such periods the young plants are eaten by cattle, made into
ensilage, and cut for hay. The mature thistles are too woody and thorny
to be grazed or cut for hay. They assume a rounded bushy shape, break
from their roots in the fall, and, impelled by the wind, go rolling and
bouncing over the plains, dropping seeds from their pods. Sometimes this
briery bush is as tall as a man and 3 feet thick. Where the highway is
sunken the thistles will drift into the cut, cling together like a barbwire
entanglement, and make the road impassable till they are burned.
In February 1909, residents report that a severe windstorm piled this
tles high on the streets of Oberlin and buried one house to a depth of 20
feet. Only the chimneys were visible above the stack of tinder-dry thistles.
Members of the family were afraid to light their breakfast fire, lest the
sparks fly from the chimney and ignite the pile. After the storm had
W lf f.
LAMBS FATTENED FOR THE STATE FAIR
abated, neighbors with spades and corn knives chopped a tunnel through
the thistles and rescued the marooned family.
Throughout the countryside the barbwire fences catch masses of weeds.
These present such resistance to a strong wind that posts are sometimes
snapped off in a gale.
ATWOOD, 193.9 m. (2,843 alt -> 1 > l6 ^ PP-)> seat of Rawlins County,
was founded in 1878, a mile and a half northeast of its present site, and
named for Atwood Matheny, son of the town s founder. It was moved in
1880. In 1885 it was plunged into the inevitable county-seat fight, ulti
mately defeating the rival village of Blakeman.
The township made loo-acre LAKE ATWOOD (boating, fishing), by
building a dam across South Beaver Creek.
A TOURIST CAMP (R), 203.6 m., exhibits the works of a former cow
boy and old settler of Atwood who paints landscapes in ready-mixed
house paint. The tourist camp also has specimens of local "bastard" gran
ite, so-called because geologists cannot account for its presence in sedi
mentary formations.
McDONALD, 214.2 ;;/. (3,369 alt., 442 pop.), a quiet village of
324 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
colorless frame houses, was established as a railroad boom town in 1887
by R. L. McDonald, the ranchman who owned the land. The Rawlins
County Fair is held annually just south of McDonald. In years when the
rainfall is sufficient to produce crops, this fair has good livestock and
agricultural exhibitions.
Right from McDonald, on an improved road, is BONE HILL, 12 m., a steep bluff,
so-named for a pile of buffalo bones at its base. According to tradition, these are
the bones of an entire herd of buffalo stampeded over the bluff by Indian hunters.
At 223.4 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is BIRD CITY, 0.5 m. (3,452 alt., 740 pop.), a village of
weather-worn frame shops and houses brightened by a block of neat bungalows
landscaped with shrubbery, shade trees, and well-kept lawns. A modern community
hall of local stone is in the city park. The town was named for John Bird, its
founder. Dr. Frank E. Townsend, author of the old age pension plan, once
homesteaded here.
The FORMER HOME OF BANTY ROGERS (private), SE. corner Ketchem Ave. and
5th St., a one-story frame structure, was occupied for many years by the man who
taught Col. Charles A. Lindbergh aeronautics. After his trans- Atlantic flight Lind
bergh flew over Bird City in his plane, the Spirit of S/. Louis, and dropped a note
of tribute to his old teacher. Rogers left Bird City in 1930, but still owns the house.
ST. FRANCIS, 238.3 m. (3,291 alt, 944 pop.), a rural trading and
shipping point and seat of Cheyenne County, is a one-street western town.
One side of this wide thoroughfare is solid with pioneer business build
ings ; the other has a few stores, scattered between vacant lots.
The town was founded in 1885 a few miles from its present site and
called Wano. When the coming of a railroad caused the townsite to be
moved it was renamed Emerson for Capt. A. L. Emerson, one of its
founders. To avoid confusion with another Kansas town of the same
name, this village was called St. Francis in honor of Captain Emerson s
wife.
Aside from a few filling stations, a landscaped park, and an 8oo-seat
concrete stadium, St. Francis has changed but little since 1888 when it
was selected as the county seat. Most of the inhabitants are descended
from the Protestant Germans, the Russo-Germans (Mennonites), and the
Bohemians who settled the town in the middle i88o s.
The climax of the wars with the Plains Indians in Kansas came in
1868, in the Battle of Beecher Island on the Arikaree, just across the
Colorado Line from Cheyenne County. Gen. William T. Sherman, hear
ing that Indians were entering northwestern Kansas, ordered Col. George
A. Forsyth, with fifty men, to turn them back.
After pursuing the Indians for five days, the party camped on the north
bank of the Arikaree River, opposite small, sandy Beecher Island. Early
the next morning, about a thousand Cheyenne attacked the camp. The
men hastily retreated to the island, abandoning their food and equipment.
In the thickest of the fighting, an arrow was driven so deeply into Scout
Harrington s skull that his comrades were unable to remove it. Later a
bullet fired from an Indian s gun struck the shaft and knocked it from
Harrington s head.
Ringed in by the enemy, there seemed no way of escape. Colonel For-
TOUR 2 325
syth twice sent scouts to summon aid from Fort Wallace, about 90 miles
south. Meanwhile the besieged, their water supply depleted, cared as best
they could for festering wounds and subsisted on horseflesh, much of
which was putrid. The relief party arrived on the ninth day. Forty-six of
Forsyth s command half of whom were wounded were rescued. It was
estimated that the Indians lost between 700 and 800 men, among whom
was the chief, Roman Nose.
A large volume of underground water flows eastward from the Rocky
Mountains through the sand and gravel underlying Cheyenne County. In
the ravines and river bottoms, wells 4 to 12 feet deep tap this flow, from
which more than 200 miles of irrigation ditches are supplied locally.
In the vicinity of St. Francis pieces of petrified wood and fossils have
been found. Many of these specimens, washed out by a flood in 1935, are
on exhibit in the Kansas State Teachers College at Hays (see Tour 3).
The i3-acre lake (fishing, boating, camping) at 244.3 m. is used for
irrigation as well as recreation. Despite adverse soil and climatic condi
tions, trees have been planted and attempts made to landscape the adjoin
ing land.
At 253.5 m. US 36 crosses the Colorado Line, 171 miles east of Denver,
Colo.
Tour 2
Manhattan Clay Center Stockton Goodland (Colorado Springs,
Colo.); US 24.
Manhattan to Colorado Line, 335.2 m.
Union Pacific R.R. parallels route between Clay Center and Miltonvale, between
Glasco and Beloit, and between Bogue and Colby; Missouri Pacific R.R. between
Beloit and Stockton; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. between Manhattan and
Clay Center, and between Colby and Kanorado.
Roadbed is bituminous surfaced most of distance, paved, or oiled the remainder;
open all year, except during infrequent blizzards.
Good accommodations in all county-seat towns.
Northwest of Manhattan, US 24 twists through rugged limestone hills,
limber-clad and sparkling with small streams. Most of the route crosses
slightly undulating pasture and wheat land. West of Hoxie are miles of
level plains that seem to stretch endlessly to the level horizon, but just
east ot the Colorado Line the route traverses a rough hilly area.
MANHATTAN, m. (1,012 alt., 10,136 pop.) (see MANHAT
TAN).
326 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Points of Interest: Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science, ex
perimental farms, City Park with log museum and monument to Chief Tatarrax,
Amanda Arnold Arch.
Manhattan is at the junction with US 24-40 (see Tour 3).
RILEY, 18.9 m. (1,108 alt, 431 pop.), is at the junction with US 77
(see Tour 10). Between Riley and a point at 22.9 m. US 24 and US 77
are one route.
LEONARDVILLE, 24 m. (1,375 ait -> 39 2 PP-) a quiet village on a
prairie upland, is a trading center of an agricultural area. It was settled
largely by Germans and Swedes in the i86o s.
CLAY CENTER, 39.7 m. (1,200 alt., 4,386 pop.), seat of Clay County,
was named for Henry Clay. The business district is built around the court
house square. The town has a broom factory and a toy factory that supply
national markets, but its chief importance is as a shipping center for
wheat, corn, hay, dairy, and poultry products.
Founded in 1862, Clay Center became the county seat in November,
1866, and in 1868 the first courthouse was built at a cost of $1,600. The
Junction City and Fort Kearney R.R. reached Clay Center in 1873 and by
1880 the town had a population of almost 2,500. Disastrous floods of the
Republican River, which flows south and west of the townsite, damaged
Clay Center in 1903, 1915, and 1925.
DEXTER PARK (picnic grounds, concerts every Wed. evening), on
Grant Ave. between 6th and 7th Sts., has a MONUMENT TO THE DEXTER
BROTHERS, early settlers. CITY PARK, on South 4th St., near the municipal
light plant, contains a rock garden.
At the southeastern edge of Clay Center are fairgrounds where the Clay
County Fair is held every year (usually m Sept.).
In the courthouse square is a monument to soldiers of the Civil War,
a slender slab of stone erected in 1911.
At 46.8 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is IDANA, 1 m. (1,253 alt., 170 pop.), dominated by two
churches and a mill.
At 3 m. is the junction with another dirt road; L. here to FLAT TOP HILL,
4*5 m., often called Table Mound. The hill was a landmark for Indians and early
settlers. In the center of its butte-like peak is a spring, now used as a watering
place for cattle.
MILTONVALE, 58.1 m. (1,378 alt., 814 pop.), was named for Milton
Tootle, who founded the town in 1879. The MILTONVALE WESLEYAN
COLLEGE, housed in a two-story limestone building on a knoll near the
west edge of town, offers a four-year theological course, a junior college
course, and complete courses in music. In 1938 this college had an enroll
ment of approximately 150.
At 70.5 m. is the junction with US 81 (see Tour 9)- Between this place
and a point at 72.5 m. US 24 and US 81 are one route.
GLASCO, 80.7 m. (1,318 alt, 707 pop.), was founded in 1870 as Del
Ray. It has a packing house, a hatchery, a creamery, and a flour mill. The
Glasco Stock Show, held annually in September since 1903, and one of
TOUR 2 327
:he most widely attended events in Cloud County, includes agricultural
and household exhibits and a carnival.
Left from Glasco on an improved road, within a ROMAN CATHOLIC CEMETERY,
0.3 m., is a plot reminiscent of Flanders Field, its 16 crosses aligned beneath a flag
pole. The gateway to this cemetery, a MEMORIAL TO WORLD WAR SOLDIERS, has
:wo white stone columns with inscribed brass plates.
SIMPSON, 86.1 m. (1,383 alt, 273 pop.), backed by the hilly terrain
of the Solomon River Valley, was built in 1870 on the site of an old
Pawnee village. It has survived a series of Indian raids and crop failures.
The first white men to attempt settlement were driven away by the
Pawnee; later, when the Pawnee were finally subdued, the Cheyenne
attempted to seize this territory which was exceptionally fine for buffalo
hunting. It was early in the i88o s before settlers could feel comparatively
safe from Indian attacks. Then came grasshopper plagues and crop fail
ures that caused food shortages ; these disasters were followed by prices so
low that the poverty-ridden pioneers burned corn for winter fuel.
Simpson is now a shipping center for a large farming and stock-raising
region.
ASHERVILLE, 90.2 m. (1,343 alt., 200 pop.), founded in 1867 on
the site of a stockade built for protection against Indians, is one of the
oldest settlements in Mitchell County. The only modern note is a school
building (L), in the northern part of town. An emergency first-aid sta-
:ion is maintained here.
BELOIT, 100.2 m. (1,378 alt., 3,502 pop.), is the seat of Mitchell
County. Its long main street is lined with old buildings of local limestone
interspersed with an occasional modern structure.
The first house on the townsite was a log cabin erected in 1868 by
A. A. Bell, on the north bank of the Solomon River. The name of the
settlement was changed in the early 1870 $ from Willow Springs to Beloit,
for Beloit, Wis., the former home of T. F. Hersey, a town promoter. On
March 26, 1872, Beloit was surveyed and the plat recorded; in August of
the same year it was organized as a third-class city, with Hersey as mayor.
Beloit is surrounded by a rich agricultural district, and has several small
industries; flour milling, the chief among them, utilizes the water power
of the Solomon River.
On the northern edge of Beloit on State 9 (R) is the STATE INDUS
TRIAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS (open, visitors apply to superintendent). Its
brick and stone buildings include five cottages for girls, two cottages for
officials, a school, a laundry, and several farm buildings. The institution
houses approximately 150 girls ranging in age from 8 to 18 years. Voca
tional training is stressed. Girls leave the school when they are 21 years
old, but the merit system provides for paroles at an earlier age.
GLEN ELDER, 110.8 m. (1,425 alt., 617 pop.), bounded on the south
by Solomon River and on the east and northeast by Limestone Creek, is
built along an elm-shaded street. First platted two and a half miles north
east of its present site and named West Hampton, Glen Elder was moved
when a flour mill was built on the present site in 1871.
At 116.8 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
328 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Left on this road is WACONDA SPRINGS (hotel accommodations, hospital),
1 m. (1,428 alt., 25 pop.), a small health resort. Behind the hospital are three?
springs. GREAT SPIRIT SPRING, the largest and best known, rises to the top of a
mound in the bottom lands of the Solomon River. The mound, about 42 feet high,
is level on top. At its center is the spring, a smooth body of water about 50 feet:
in diameter. Always filled to the brim , it appears about to overflow; instead, the
water seeps through the porous rock sides of the mound.
It is said that the Indians, believing these waters sacred, named the springs
Waconda, for the chief deity of the Kaws. Another explanation of the name is that
a powerful Indian chief opposed the son of a rival chief as a suitor for his daugh
ter, Waconda. In a battle between the two tribes Waconda s lover was wounded,
and weak from loss of blood, fell into the stream. When Waconda accused her
father of killing the young brave he became angry, shot an arrow through his
daughter s head and threw her body into the spring where the spirits of the lovers
still dwell.
The waters from Waconda Springs received an award at the Chicago World s
Fair in 1934. They contain 1,120 grains of sodium chloride, sodium sulphate mag
nesium, and epsom salts to a gallon.
CAWKER CITY, 117.8 m. (1,473 a ^-> 739 PP-)> was so-named in
the early iSyo s as the result of a poker game played by its founders.
E. H. Cawker won. It is the site of a small manufacturing company but is
largely dependent on farm trade.
The RICHARDSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY (open 8-5 weekdays),
one block south of US 24 on First Ave., manufactures miscellaneous agri
cultural implements and a patented machine for stripping beans.
The OLD ALDRICH HOME (private), N. edge of the city on Pennsyl
vania Ave., a two-story, red brick structure of Victorian design, was built
in the i88o s by Levi L. Aldrich (1849-1917), a newspaper publisher
who founded the Cawker City Free Press in 1878, and later became pub
lisher of the Public Record. Mrs. Emma B. Aldrich (1845-1925), wife
of the pioneer editor, was the first woman in Mitchell County to hold a
higher grade teacher s certificate. She later served as county superintendent
of schools. In 1883 she was one of forty women who met at Denver,
Colo., and organized the Woman s Relief Corps. Her husband, a Union
veteran, was active in Grand Army of the Republic circles and edited the
Camp Fire, a publication of the veterans organization.
DOWNS, 124 m. (1,483 alt., 1,383 pop.), in the bottom lands of the
South Fork, Solomon River, is a railroad center in an agricultural region
producing oats, rye, rape, alfalfa, sorghum, sugar beets, broom corn and
rice corn. The town was named for Major Downs, a local railroad super
intendent at the time of its founding. Downs has the usual main street
lined with business establishments.
OSBORNE, 136.5 m. (1,557 alt., 1,881 pop.), seat of Osborne County,
was named for Vincent B. Osborne, early Kansas cavalry sergeant, and
settled largely by Pennsylvania Dutch. A clean and modern town in the
heart of the fertile Solomon Valley, it is a shipping point for the sur
rounding cattle, wheat, corn and sorghum area.
Just east of the Osborne post office is an attractive sunken garden.
At 137.7 m. is the junction with an improved road.
ALTON, 151.2 m. (1,651 alt, 383 pop.), a rural trading center, was
TOUR 2 329
originally called Bull City for Gen. H. C. Bull, one of its founders who
flipped a nickel to win the honor from Lyman T. Earl, another founder.
The name was changed to Alton in 1885 for Alton, 111., from where many
of the settlers had emigrated.
In 1879 an exciting event occurred in this little locust-shaded village,
when a pet elk killed General Bull and three men who tried to save him.
The horns of the elk hang in a little shop (locally called a museum) on
Alton s main street.
STOCKTON, 170.1 ;;/. (1,775 a ^-> I > 2 9 1 pP-)> ls a spacious western
cow town on tableland overlooking a basin formed by the South Fork and
the Solomon River valley. Stockton was so-named by early day cattlemen
because of the livestock raised in the surrounding country.
The annual Western Kansas-Nebraska Fair (latter part of Aug.) is held
in Stockton, with carnival attractions, school and home exhibits, and a
stock show.
At Stockton is the junction with State i, improved.
Left on State i to the junction with another improved road, 2 m.; R. on this
road is the ROOKS COUNTY STATE LAKE (under construction, 1938), 4.5 m.
When completed the lake will cover an area of approximately 60 acres and will be
stocked with fish by the State Forestry, Fish and Game Commission. Water will
be impounded by damming Boxelder Creek, a tributary of the Solomon River. Be-
pin in 1934 as an FERA project, the work was continued under the WPA program
and is expected to be completed in 1939.
West of a TIME ZONE BOUNDARY, 173 m., Mountain Standard Time is
i sed and watches of west-bound travelers should be set back one hour.
At 187.1 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is the junction with another dirt road, 3 m.; R. on this road
past a few farmhouses and much poor pasture land characterized by low bluffs and
dunes to NICODEMUS, 5 m. (2,200 alt., 67 pop.), an unincorporated town and
the only all-Negro community in Kansas.
Nicodemus, sole survivor of Kansas three colonies settled by the "Exodusters"
(see HISTORY), is not affluent. Children play in the dusty street before wooden
or stone huts that contain only bare necessities often wooden chairs and a table,
a stove and an iron bed. A tavern is the sole business place. Only the churches have
electric lights and the nearest telephones are at Bogue, 6 miles away. The residents,
employed by Negro farmers of Graham County, go to Stockton or Hill City for
supplies or for conferences with their Negro lawyers or their white bankers. From
their meager share of the harvest, which they hoard for winter use, a tithe is set
aside for the annual Emancipation Celebration.
The "Exodusters" were organized in 1873 by Benjamin (Pap) Singleton (see
HISTORY). In establishing Nicodemus he was aided by Topeka Negro leaders
and W. R. Hill, a white man from Indiana, who was speculating in land in Western
Kansas at that time and was attracted by the large fees that homesteaders paid for
assistance in obtaining land and file papers. The first group reached this townsite in
the autumn of 1877, too late to plant crops. Their savings had been spent for rail
road fares and the payment of fees. Unable to purchase lumber or other building
materials, they lived in crude dugouts or burrows. For fuel, they burned buffalo
chips, sunflower stalks, and faggots cut from clumps of dwarf willows and cotton-
woods. During the first year no houses of any kind were built above the ground.
They received little aid from the white settlers of the county, who resented them
so bitterly that Hill, blamed for bringing them in, was forced to flee. (When he
returned to this section later, however, he was held in high esteem and Hill City
named for him.)
NEGRO FARMER
This community was named Nicodemus not for the Biblical character but for the
legendary Nicodemus who came to America on a slave ship and later purchased his
liberty. Of him the plantation Negroes of the South sang:
Nicodemus was a slave of African birth,
And was bought for a bag of gold,
He was recokoned as a part of the salt of the earth,
And he died years ago, very old.
Nicodemus was a prophet, at heart he was wise,
For he told of the battles to come;
Now he trembled with fear when he rolled up his eyes
And he heeded the shake of his thumb.
Members of the Nicodemus colony added the following hopeful chorus:
Good time coming, good time coming,
Long, long time on the way;
Go tell Elijah to hurry up pomp,
To meet us under the cottonwood tree
In the great South Solomon Valley to build up
The city of Nicodemus at the break of day.
Crop failures followed in monotonous succession. Even in 1883, a good crop
year elsewhere in western Kansas, Nicodemus was seared by southwest winds. Many
colonists, discouraged, abandoned their claims. Others found seasonal work with
white farmers in the county. From a population of 500 in 1880 the town had de
clined to less than 200 by 1910.
One of Nicodemus most able leaders, the Reverend Roundtree who wore a
brand on one cheek as punishment for having received educational instruction from
TOUR 2 331
iiis master s son taught the new citizens to read and write. At a State Fair in
Michigan his pleas for the colony of Nicodemus brought several carloads of food
and a sum of money. Assisted by Zach Fletcher, another resident, he was successful
m having Baptist and Methodist churches erected. These buildings are still used
by the community. Although most of the colonists have had to begin work at an
(.arly age, some have been graduated from college and a few have held county
offices. Probably the most notable of these was E. P. McCabe, State auditor (1885-
1889), who later became a Territorial official in Oklahoma.
The stone PRISCILLA ART CLUB BUILDING (open), W. end of Main St. (R),
built in the boom days of the i88o s by one of the town s important early day social
and cultural groups, was never occupied because of faulty construction.
The NICODEMUS SCHOOL HOUSE (open), near the southwest edge of town, a one-
room frame structure painted white, was built in 1882 and is still in use.
Left 0.8 m. from Nicodemus on an unimproved road to the junction with another
unimproved road; R. 1.3 m. on this road to i2-acre SCRUGGS GROVE (dance
^. u Hi on, picnic tables), where the annual Emancipation Celebration is held. Kansas
Negroes observe August 4 as Emancipation Day because, according to legend, that
was the day on which Nicodemus master laid aside his whip. Negroes from all
parts of the State as well as visitors from Oklahoma and Missouri join in a bar
becue and watermelon feast under the cottonwoods. Square dances for the older
jesidents are varied with modern steps for the younger Negroes.
* WA A A A A XX >- ^r A, A, *J V X. *S *J A VX A, \. L I \~ J \_/ V* A A f^\
At 195 m. is the junction with a graded road.
Left on this road is BOGUE, 2 m. (1,203 alt., 135 pop.), a rural trading center,
founded in 1888 and named for a locomotive engineer. It was not incorporated
until 1935.
At 7.8 m. on this road is the Buss TAXIDERMY (open), a two-story stucco build
ing used as a dwelling by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Buss and as a museum for their
collection of stuffed birds, reptiles, and other animals. Most of the specimens are of
wild life found in Graham County. Included are badgers, coyotes, skunks, raccoons,
prairie dogs, owls, eagles, blue birds, red-winged blackbirds, pelicans, herons,
prairie chickens, horned toads, lizards, and turtles. Another collection includes a
rnammoth tusk found in the county in 1934 and other geological and paleontolog-
ical specimens.
At 203 m. is the junction with a graded road.
Right on this road to a pasture gate (R), 2.5 m. Through the pasture gate 3.2 m.
to TINDALL HILL, a sandstone promontory rising 150 feet above the plain. The
slopes are overgrown with gooseberry bushes, sumac, wild grape vines, and buffalo
rass. At the base of the hill is Coon Creek, a clear winding stream. Tindall Hill
i> a popular picnic spot for residents of Graham County. The sandstone deposits
have been quarried extensively and used for surfacing highways.
^Although HILL CITY, 204.2 m. (2,134 alt., 1,027 pop.), seat of
Graham County, is on a hill bordered by two creeks, it was named for one
of its founders and early settlers, W. R. Hill.
John Stanley, the first resident of the townsite, arrived in 1877. Hill
City was surveyed in 1880; two years later it was incorporated with Hill as
mayor.
"Hill City, like Kansas," admitted a local writer, "has come through
cyclones, hot winds, prairie fires, county seat fights, and droughts until
today (1936) she is the largest . . . city in Graham County. Not only in
their ability to survive disasters but also in their fondness for civic organi
zations are the residents of this town typical of their State. In addition to
having membership in church guilds and literary and social clubs, Hill
Citians are active in such groups as the American Legion, Rotary, the
FARM WOMEN S LITERARY MEETING
Y.M.C.A., the Masons, Oddfellows, Woodmen, and their various women s
auxiliaries. Even though all the local members of the G.A.R. are now
dead, its women s division still holds meetings. Almost everyone belongs
to some group and almost every group, from the elementary school to the
veterans, has a band that, clad in striking costume, drills for prizes on
every gala occasion."
Right from Hill City on State 21, an improved road, to the only SOD HOUSE
(open) in Graham County, 1.5 m. This reproduction, a fine example of the
prairie pioneer s architecture, was built in 1925. It has two rooms with dirt floors,
plastered walls, two windows, and a door. When the pioneers passed beyond the
forested lands which ended approximately at Kansas City, Mo. and pushed out
on the treeless plains where neither wood nor stone was available for building,
they cut the hard prairie turf into bricks to form walls that would support the
weight of a roof and give protection from the weather. These sod walls were no
deterrent to snakes or rodents, however, and, since the houses were often half dug
outs, with one side of their roofs projecting from a hillside, grazing buffalo would
sometimes crash through the roof and join the occupants below.
At 2 m. is the junction with a dirt road; R. here to KNOUF GROVE (rustic
benches and tables, nominal fees), 7 m., a shady cottonwood grove with a spring,
a pleasant place for picnics.
At 216.4 m. on US 24 is the junction with an improved road.
Left on this road is MORLAND, 1 m. (2,302 alt., 385 pop.), a rural trading
and shipping point, in the sandy valley of the Solomon River. The town was or-
TOUR 2 333
ganized in 1886 and named Fremont in honor of General Fremont, but when the
railroad came 3 years later it was renamed for a railroad official.
Morland held a treasure hunt in the spring of 1936 that attracted widespread
interest. A local merchant, who had hired drillers to sink a water well on his
property, announced that the drill had struck a hard metallic substance and was
covered with shiny particles that looked like gold. Within a few hours the town
was buzzing with news of the discovery of a box or chest filled with Spanish
do ibloons or gold bars. The well was being sunk in a former channel of the
river, and imaginative citizens concluded that Spaniards or "forty-niners," when
atticked by Indians, had thrown their treasure into the stream. Soundings indi
cated that the object was approximately 2 feet wide and 4 feet long.
SfTorts to bring the treasure to the surface were made extremely difficult by the
locse sand. There were frequent cave-ins and the work was hazardous. Eventually it
became too expensive for one man to finance and a company was organized with a
capital of $200. For weeks the "box" resisted all efforts to dislodge it. In the
meantime Morhmd enjoyed a boom. The curious came from miles around and
local restaurant proprietors and soft-drink vendors realized unusual profits. Finally
it was announced that the "box" would be raised on a Saturday afternoon and a
large crowd, including representatives of several metropolitan newspapers, poured
int3 Morland to see the treasure. A block and tackle were made fast. The pulley
creaked and the "box" rose slowly to the edge of the pit. It was a large chunk of
lin estone.
At 217.9 tn. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road is 86-acre ANTELOPE LAKE, 1.5 m. (hunting, boating, fish
ing), constructed in 1934-35 as an Emergency Relief project. The dam is con
structed with floodgates which can be opened during periods of heavy rainfall to
divert water into ditches with which adjacent wheat fields are irrigated.
STUDLEY, 221.2 m. (2,381 alt., 100 pop.), on an uneven plateau just
north of the South Fork of the Solomon River, was settled by former
residents of Yorkshire and named for Studley, England. The surrounding
area contains attractive English-type homes and cattle and sheep ranches.
Irrigation has enabled residents to reproduce the gardens of old Yorkshire.
Left from the highway is the J. FENTON PRATT HOUSE (private), a
stcne structure of Victorian architecture, surrounded by a garden and trees.
The main portion of the residence was constructed by Pratt for his English
bride in the i88o s.
West of Studley the land gradually rises; numerous low hills and draws
are- covered with yucca and soapweed. The roots of the latter plant make
rich suds when powdered and mixed with water; they were used for soap
by trappers, settlers, and Indians. When blooming in June, the yucca
pi. nt has tall cream-colored spikes of blossoms that stand like ghostly
sentinels along the draws.
At 239.7 m. (R) on the south bank of Sand Creek is the SITE OF OLD
PORT BYRON, a pioneer cattle town. Here in early days was a camp and
bedding ground for herders and cowboys on the trail over which cattle
were driven from Texas to Kansas and the Northwest. The town began
in 1879 as a dugout saloon. The story is that a cowboy named Richards
with a friend, Billy Hudson, started the dugout saloon so that they might
watch the cattle trails for another cowboy named Fisher, who had severely
wounded Richards a year before. Fisher never came.
Indians often camped near the dugout saloon, but with the exception of
334 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
the Cheyenne they were all friendly. According to old accounts, local set
tlers feared drunken cowboys more than the Cheyenne.
HOXIE, 240.1 m. (2,654 a ^-> 8o PP-)> seat of Sheridan County, is
a modern trading and shipping village. Hoxie had its beginning in a
village named Kenneth that was situated 3 miles north of the present site.
In 1886 when the Missouri Pacific R.R. made plans to come through the
county, the settlement was moved and renamed for a vice president of the
railroad company. Though the railroad failed to arrive till some time after
Hoxie had been founded, the village prospered.
West of Hoxie US 24 traverses the High Plains, which stretch unbroken
for many monotonous miles. Early summer in crop years (see AGRICUL
TURE) finds this area covered with waving yellow fields of wheat inter
spersed with green corn.
At 243.2 m. is the junction with a private dirt road.
Left on this road is an OLD SODDY, I m. (occupied, visitors welcome), built
about 1896, and somewhat modern compared with the first soddies erected on these
plains.
HALFORD, 265.3 m. (3,086 alt., 18 pop.), is at the junction with
US 83 (see Tour 8). Between this place and a point at 267.3 m. US 24
and US 83 are one route.
Along the highway west of Halford barren spots of earth, resembling
ant hills, extend outward from the edge of the road. These are places
where the crop- devastating bindweed has been destroyed by salting the
earth. The bindweed is a white morning-glory that strangles wheat or corn
by enmeshing the crops roots and absorbing all the nutriment from the
soil. The most effective way to kill it is with salt; but salt makes plains
country soil unfit to grow vegetation for a quarter of a century.
The sales pavilion (L), 273 m., is a livestock market where traders can
buy and sell stock grades of hogs and cattle. Formerly the railroad stock
yards in Colby handled this business, but now only finished hogs and
cattle are handled in Colby.
COLBY, 274.4 m. (3,138 alt, 2,153 pop.), seat of Thomas County,
an attractive town with green trees and lawns, is built along a main street
broad enough to permit parking in the center.
On this site, before the town was built, there had been a post office, the
earliest in Thomas County. The town, named for J. R. Colby, an early
settler, was incorporated as a third-class city in 1886. It now serves a large
agricultural area as a wholesale, shipping, and trading center. Since 1910
Colby has had a municipal light and water plant that supports all other
civic expenses and keeps the town tax-free. Rates compare favorably with
those of privately owned utilities.
The Thomas County Fair is held here annually (3rd week in Aug.).
West of Colby is the KANSAS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
(open), in a group of white-painted buildings surrounded by shrubbery,
and well-kept grounds. This station cost approximately $30,000, covers
266 acres, and operates under the direction of the U. S. Department of
Agriculture and the Kansas State College.
TOUR 2 335
At 276 m. is the junction with a township dirt road.
Right on this road is 5-acre HFMSTROM PARK (nominal rates, swimming pool,
i 1 se ball, dancing, picnicking, boating), 4 m.
EDSON, 300.4 m. (2,573 a ^-> 8o PP-)> was name d for an early set
tler, Ed Harris, and his son.
Right from Edson on a dirt road is the KUHRT FARM (open), 12 m., known for
it; shorthorn cattle which have won many prizes in stock shows throughout the
United States.
GOODLAND, 313 m. (3,687 alt., 3,626 pop.), is a modern western
county seat, with a few attractive office buildings, a railroad division office
quarters, and a modern courthouse, ranged along a wide main street.
The population of Goodland varies noticeably from year to year. Prior
to the motor age 50 percent of local employment was furnished by the
r.ilroad; now, owing to the decline in rail traffic, only 15 or 20 percent
depend upon this industry. The permanence of Goodland, however, seems
assured by its water supply. Thirty feet beneath the surface, a layer of
sand extending westward to the Rockies is replenished by a constant under
ground flow from the melting snows of those mountains.
Locust, elm, poplar, and evergreen trees shade the one-and-one-half
acre GOODLAND CITY PARK, which has a fountain and wading pool in its
center. The Northwest District Free Fair (last iveek in Aug.) is held at
trie fairgrounds on the northern edge of town.
During the drought of the early 1890*5, officials of the District Fair,
then only a county organization, advertised in railroad depots for hun
dreds of miles in Kansas and Nebraska that Melbourne, called the
"Australian Rain Maker," had been hired to display his magic on the fair-
g-ounds and would be paid $1,500 if he could bring forth one inch of
tt.in in 24 hours.
"It was the opening day in September," wrote Fred Stewart, authority
for the story of Goodland rain making, "windy, dusty, and parching dry.
No rain fell here after the rain maker s experiment. But during the twenty-
four hours of Melbourne s time limit, we received telegrams from towns
along the railroad northeastward into Nebraska saying: Shut off the rain
maker; we are drowning. Floods washed out bridges and did immense
d image."
Melbourne s method consisted of pouring sulphuric acid on zinc to
release hydrogen, which was supposed to rise and unite with oxygen in the
air to form water.
After experiments of two local men, O. P. Smith, a chemist, and E. F.
Murphy, a railroad agent, had been followed by a shower, they incorpo
rated and sold all their shares at par. The corporation was hired by
Californians to make rain in several farming valleys, and the Mexican
Government, harassed by a great drought, also sought the Goodland Rain
Makers, but before the company could perform, the Mexican drought
ended.
A later rain-making company, organized by a Goodland druggist, Dr.
L Morse, operated for 15 or 20 years. A transcontinental railroad, run-
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
ning through the town, put on three laboratory cars for its own rain
makers and toured all their roads in Kansas. "In 1892," continues Fred
Stewart, "our finest prospect for wheat began burning up in July. The
postmaster, Billy Walker, gave $50 to Dr. Morse to buy chemicals to make
it rain. I helped him carry the chemicals to a barn, including a lo-gallon
carboy of sulphuric acid so heavy I had to drag it. He started his experi
ment at 10 o clock in the morning. At two in the afternoon, the town
sidewalks were afloat and kids were riding on them for rafts." O. P.
Smith, the chemist who organized the first rain-making company, still
lives in Goodland (1938).
Goodland introduced several innovations in the usual county-seat fight.
In 1886 Eustis was appointed by the Governor as temporary county seat
pending a popular election. Its rivals were Voltaire, Sherman Center, and
Itaska, "the Queen City of Kansas." In the November election all the
officials of the Eustis faction, except one, were returned to office. When the
votes were to be counted, all factions sent representatives heavily armed
with pistols, clubs, and bowie knives.
Another county seat election was held in 1887 after Goodland had been
organized. Goodland was supported by settlers from Sherman Center and
Itaska, who wished to wrench the prize from Eustis. Voltaire was also
asked to join the new town, but refused and spent seven years dying. The
Homesteaders United Association, a local organization to protect settlers
against claim jumpers, sided with Goodland and ordered twelve repeating
rifles from Pennsylvania. Goodland won the county seat without firing a
shot.
The members of this militant force built a courthouse in Goodland, but
Eustis refused to surrender the county books, and influential residents
secured an injunction forbidding their removal to Goodland. Goodland
promoters then secretly posted 300 armed men in their empty courthouse
and sent the new sheriff, John Nevert, to arrest, individually, every able-
bodied man in Eustis on false charges. The male population of Eustis was
thus charged with cattle stealing, wife beating, polygamy, murder, escape
from the penitentiary, arson, larceny, mayhem, and harboring an unli
censed dog. Each man, knowing himself to be innocent of the charge, sub
mitted to arrest, eager to clear himself before a judge. When all these men
had been brought into the courtroom, the judge started a mock trial that
the victims took seriously. Meanwhile the army of 300 slipped out of the
courthouse and dashed for Eustis to seize the records. "I saw them go,"
Col. George Bradley, old-time resident, reported, "so I rushed in and
reported it to the prisoners at the bar. This broke up the trial."
"I had a horse and buggy," Bradley continued, "and I raced over the
prairie on the north flank of the Goodland army. Their leader cried halt/
but I ignored him and they opened fire their bullets kicking up dust all
around me. I reached Eustis and saw the horde seize the records. Negro
Bob, a big colored doorman at the Eustis Hotel, in an attempt to be
pleasant and noncommittal, spoke to Mr. Fletcher, one of the H. U. A.
members saying: Are you white men out hunting?
Yes, growled Fletcher, hunting coons. And he hit the Negro with
TOUR 3 337
his Winchester, raising a bump on his head. This was the only casualty
of the entire campaign. Goodland secured all the records except the pre
cinct election returns of 1887, these, George Benson, county clerk, had
hidden in a trunk in his own house." The Goodland Town Company
offered Benson two town lots and several hundred dollars in cash for the
return of the election records, according to Bradley who concludes:
"I raced back to Eustis, entered Benson s store basement, broke open
the trunk, and took away the election returns. When Benson arrived he
sounded the alarm that he had been robbed. It was really comical. Mean
while the Kansas Supreme Court had been appealed to and made a judi
cial examination of witnesses in every precinct. M. B. Tomlin, about to
open a bank in Goodland and eager to make sure of its legality as the
county seat, offered to hire me as a detective and to pay $1,500 for the
missing election returns. Before I could go get them, the report of the
Supreme Court s confirmation of Goodland became known and the stolen
returns were not needed. I kept them several years and then threw them
in the fire."
A truckload of live jackrabbits was shipped from Goodland in 1935 to
stock the game preserves of Illinois. But these large rabbits of the semi-
arid plains could not adapt themselves to damp wooded areas, and died.
Sherman County was the scene of a corn-breeding experiment in the
early 1900*5. G. W. Sherrod produced a flinty hard corn named Sherrod s
White Dent that matured in 100 days, often producing three large ears to
the stalk. White Dent was later replaced by a yellow corn which yielded a
soft inferior grain but required a shorter growing season.
The soil around Goodland is derived from the sediment of a chalk sea,
estimated to have existed 200 million years ago. Petrified sea turtles and
marine coral are found along Sappa Creek. Fossil remains of a 4O-feet
marine reptile, called Mosasaurus, are also found in this region.
KANORADO, 333.2 m. (3,906 alt., 359 pop.), so named for its posi
tion near the Kansas-Colorado Line, is a small railroad shipping point
with two grain elevators, one hotel, two tourist camps, a number of small
business establishments, a consolidated school, and a nine-hole golf course.
At 335.2 m. US 24 crosses the Colorado Line, 150 miles east of Colo
rado Springs, Colo, (see COLO., Tour 5).
Tour 3
(Kansas City, Mo.) Kansas City Topeka Manhattan Salina Hays
-(Denver, Colo.) ; US 24-40, US 40.
Missouri Line to Colorado Line, 451.1 m.
33 8 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Union Pacific R.R. parallels entire route.
Concrete paved roadbed between Kansas City and Wilson, remainder of the route
is either bituminous mat or oil surfaced. Heaviest east-west traffic arcoss Kansas.
Open all year except immediately following occasional blizzards.
Good accommodations in all county seat towns.
This route, connecting several of the State s most important towns, bor
ders the Kansas River between Kansas City and Junction City; between
Junction City and a point just east of the Colorado Line, it roughly
bisects the area between the Smoky Hill River and the Saline River.
Section a. MISSOURI LINE to MANHATTAN, 128.9 m., US 24-40,
US 40
West of Kansas City US 24-40 crosses a pleasant, rolling country from
whose high points are sweeping views of farm lands and wooded hills. It
skirts Lawrence, where the university buildings are visible on the summit
of Mount Oread, and winds with ever-changing views of woods and
waters, through the Kansas River bottoms, flanked on both sides by rugged
hills. Between Manhattan and Junction City the route climbs these white-
ribbed limestone hills.
On the intercity viaduct over the Kansas River, US 24-40 crosses the
Missouri Line, m., west of Kansas City, Mo. (see MO., Tours 2 and 3).
KANSAS CITY, KANS., 1.2 m. (771 alt., 121,857 pop.) (see KAN
SAS CITY).
Points of Interest: University of Kansas Hospital, Baptist Theological Seminary,
Horner Institute of Fine Arts, Western University (Negro), Old Huron Indian
Cemetery, and others.
At 3.7 m. is the junction with oil-surfaced Louisa Smith Rd.
Right on this road is the OLD QUINDARO CEMETERY, 4 m. Near the cemetery
is the SITE OF AN OLD LOG CHURCH built by Wyandotte Indians in 1849 when
their original church was divided over the slavery question.
The VICTORY HILLS GOLF CLUB (open, nominal rates), 7 m., has (L)
an i8-hole course, bent grass greens, and a modern clubhouse.
WHITE CHURCH, 8.8 m. (1,038 alt., 116 pop.), a village built
around a post office and a general store, is the site of a Delaware Meth
odist mission erected in 1832. Approximately a thousand Delaware Indi
ans living in the vicinity attended the mission, which had five buildings
and large stables. Missionary annals of the i85o s describe the Delaware
as "intelligent and industrious and eager to accept the teachings of the
Methodist Church." They had been in contact with English civilization
since the founding of Virginia. When the question of slavery arose and
the Methodist Church split, the Delaware at White Church took their
stand with the new southern branch of the church, which favored slavery.
Right one block on Betton Road is the MEMORIAL WHITE CHURCH, a
one-story structure of Romanesque design, constructed of local limestone.
The original log structure, destroyed by fire in 1844, was replaced by a
white frame building which the Indians called White Church ; for this the
town was named. After the frame building had been destroyed by a
TOUR 3 339
cyclone in 1886 it was replaced by the present stone building. In 1932,
after a century of Methodism, it became a community church.
Directly behind the church, on a hillside shaded by oak trees, in the
BURIAL GROUND OF THE DELAWARE is the GRAVE OF CHIEF KETCHUM,
leader of the tribe for 26 years and one of the signers of a treaty in 1868,
by which his tribe agreed to move to Indian Territory. For many years
after the removal of the Delaware from Kansas, members of the tribe
returned annually to pay homage to their dead pilgrimages that account
in large measure for the preservation of the cemetery.
Near the center of the cemetery is the SITE OF AN OLD LOG CHURCH
built by Wyandotte Indians in 1849 when their original church was
divided over the slavery question. The spot is marked by a linden tree
bearing a long scar on its trunk. According to local legend the scar was
caused by the fire which destroyed the church on the night of April 8,
1856.
At 11.1 m. is the junction with Corum Road, paved.
Right on Corum Road to WYANDOTTE RECREATIONAL PARK (swimming,
boating, picnic grounds, fishing, shelter houses, concession stand) , 2.5 m., covering
1,500 acres enclosed by a rail fence. A lake is encircled by 12 miles of trails and
footpaths; a 2o-mile drive follows the shore line.
The MAYWOOD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (L), 11.6 m., founded in
1885, is, with a white-painted frame building and an old cemetery, all
that remains of the town of Maywood.
VICTORY JUNCTION, 15.2 m. (950 alt, 50 pop.), is at the junc
tion with US 73 (see Tour 12A). In a triangular plot (R) at the junction
of the two highways is a bronze statue of an American soldier. US 24-40
was dedicated in 1920 to Kansans who lost their lives in the World War
and markers were erected along its course at intervals; between Victory
Junction and Fort Riley it is still known locally as the Victory Highway,
although the route officially became US 40 in 1927.
Fruit growing and dairying supplement grain and truck farming to
some extent around Victory Junction. Grapes are grown extensively and
one of the largest commercial varieties of strawberries was developed here.
A brief stretch of high, treeless farm lands separates the wooded sec
tion near Kansas City from the valley. West of Victory Junction the roll
ing hills descend slowly to lowlands indicated in the distance by a line of
trees.
The WREN BROADCASTING STATION (visitors welcome), is (L) at
25.8 m.
At 27.8 m. is the junction with State 16, a paved road.
Right on State 16 is TONGANOXIE, 0.2 m. (875 alt., 1,109 pop.), a trading
center for the farming area midway between Kansas City and Lawrence. Climbing
a slope from the railroad track on the east, Tonganoxie s main street is lined with
cream stations, hardware shops, drug and dry goods stores, and the usual business
concerns of the small farming community, all housed in stiff little brick and lime
stone buildings, remnants of the i88o s and 1890 $, with which its elm-shaded
residential district forms a pleasing contrast. In an attempt to recover part of the
trade lost when the highway that formerly followed Tonganoxie s main street was
IN A COUNTRY STORE
rerouted to by-pass the town, its residents placed many signs along the highway
asking travelers to "Stop at Tonganoxie."
At 3 m. is the 5o6-acre LEAVENWORTH COUNTY STATE PARK (boating,
swimming, fishing, camping, hunting, hiking). Its 175-acre lake is stocked with
bass, crappie, and catfish.
South and west of Tonganoxie US 24-40 dips into the widening Kaw
River valley where fields of oats, corn, and potatoes extend in checker
board pattern from both sides of the road. Approximately 2 million bush
els of potatoes are grown annually in this valley. The long symmetrical
rows of potato plants seem to realign themselves, first into diamonds and
then into squares.
A Victory Highway Marker (R), 37.4 m., honoring Douglas County
citizens who died in the World War, consists of a massive stone base upon
which a bronze eagle hovers above a nest of its young.
A tourist camp and roadhouse, 39.8 m., built to resemble an Indian
village of tepees, is at the southern junction with US 59 (see Tour 12)
which unites with US 24 for 10.2 miles west of this point.
Right here on US 24-59, an alternate route to US 40 through the Kansas River
valley, which avoids the Lawrence and Topeka traffic and the hills and curves on
US 40.
TOUR 3 341
PERRY, 14.5 m. (845 alt., 418 pop.), an attractive village founded as a railroad
boom town in 1865, serves as an agrarian shipping and trading center. BUM S PARK
(L), at the intersection of the business district and the highway, was so-named be
cause it is a favorite lounging place for loafers
West of Perry the highway passes a series of low blufTs overlooking the Kansas
River which makes a great bend between this point and the Topeka city limits.
US 24 traverses the northern outskirts of North Topeka at 26.4 ;;;., an area of
suburban homes and small truck farms.
At 31 m. is the junction with US 75 (see Tour 11).
The STATE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS (R), 32.2 m. (grounds open to visi
tors; buildings on Application) t with 27 buildings in a grove of elm trees, covers
500 acres. In this correctional institution boys between the ages of 6 and 16 are
instructed in regular school work, music, mechanics, barbering, painting, enginetfr-
ing, woodworking, and shoe repairing; military training is also given.
At 33.1 ;;/. is the junction with US 40.
LAWRENCE, 42 ;;;. (840 alt., 13,726 pop.) (see LAWRENCE).
Points of Interest: University of Kansas, Haskcll Indian Institute, Spooner-
Thayer Museum, Plymouth Church, and others.
Lawrence is at the southern junction with US 59 (see Tour 12).
From US 40 at 45 ;//. the red-roofed limestone buildings of the Univer
sity of Kansas are visible (L) on the crest of a hill known locally as
Mount Oread.
Between Lawrence and Topeka, US 40 follows a winding route through
a range of hills. The Kansas River valley (R) and the Wakarusa River
valley (L) dip from the highway, their multicolored fields of corn, wheat,
alfalfa, and pasture land separated by green hedgerows. From the higher
points the tree-covered bluffs of the Kansas River are visible far to the
north.
The marked SITE OF THE COON POINT CAMPING GROUND (R) of
early overland travelers, 50.8 m., is at a junction with a graveled road.
Right on this road is the junction with a dirt road 0.1 m.; L. here, 0.3 m., to
the unmarked SITE OF FORT TITUS, on a farm (visitors welcome), belonging to
F. H. Nace. The fort was built by Col. H. T. Titus, who brought a battalion of
Southerners to Kansas in 1856, to fight the Free Staters of Lawrence and Topeka
(see LAWRENCE). He participated in the sacking of Lawrence, May 21, 1856,
when the type of the Herald of Freedom was strewn through the dusty main street.
According to some accounts, the Free Staters gathered the type in grain baskets,
winnowed it out in the breeze, and melted it into Minie balls. Samuel Walker,
leading 600 Free Staters, attacked Fort Titus in August 1856. The Free Staters
cannon, called Old Sacramento, was loaded with Minic balls. After the first shot
one of the attackers shouted: "Now give them another edition of the Herald of
Preedom!" The fort was destroyed and Colonel Titus, seriously wounded, was cap
tured with his men, but soon released through an exchange of prisoners.
At 3 m. on the graveled road is LECOMPTON (846 alt., 288 pop.), a quiet
village on the sides of the rolling hills above the south bank of the Kansas River.
It was founded in 1854 and named for Samuel D. Lecompte, the first chief justice
of the Kansas Territory.
When the first Territorial legislature, in session at Shawnee Mission, voted to
remove the permanent seat of government to Lecompton in August 1855, * i3-acre
tract on the east side of the settlement was set aside by the legislature, and Con
gress was induced to make appropriations for the construction of a large stone
capitol here. Between 1855 and 1858 Lecompton was the center of the political
truggle in which, President Pierce charged, Territorial officials and influential
persons were more interested in filling their pockets with realty profits than in the
great issue dividing the Nation.
34 2 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
In 1858 the Territorial legislature passed a resolution to adjourn to Lawrence
because of "a general lack of accommodations" at Lecompton. That same year the
Lecompton constitution was submitted to President Buchanan and the voters in the
Territory. The President urged its adoption and the admission of Kansas as a slave
State. The electorate of the Territory, however, repudiated the document with an
overwhelming vote. The legislature, meanwhile, continued to convene at Lecompton
and immediately adjourn to Lawrence, a formality that was practiced until the ad
mission of Kansas as a State in 1861.
LANE UNIVERSITY, adjacent to the Lecompton Rural High School (one block
E. of the business section), was established in 1865 by the United Brethren Church
and built on the foundations of the unfinished Territorial capitol. It was named for
James H. Lane, ardent abolitionist, and stressed religious education. In 1903 Lane
University was merged with Campbell University at Holton (see Tour 11). Sub
sequently, it was moved to Kansas City, Kans., where it became known as Kansas
City University. Still later it was moved to Nebraska.
The ROWENA HOTEL, at the south end of Main St., a plain building of crum
bling stone, was one of the five hotels that did a flourishing business when Le
compton was the territorial capital. It provided the first quarters for Lane Uni
versity till a college building was erected on the site of the unfinished capitol ; then
the Rowena was converted into dormitories.
In CONSTITUTION HALL, on the west side of Main St., a two-story frame house
of modest proportions, the Lecompton constitution was written.
Just north of Lecompton and east of the bridge spanning the Kansas River is the
SITE OF SIMMONS FERRY LANDING, which played an important part in the commer
cial life of Lecompton in the i85o s. The ferry was a dugout skiff made of a large
sycamore log. William K. Simmons, its owner, and the first white settler in the
vicinity, was one of the organizers of the Lecompton townsite. An early-day traveler
related that he approached this crude boat with some misgiving, but Simmons
said reassuringly: "Don t feel skeery, mister, for she s as dry as a Missourian s
throat and as safe as the American flag."
Right 2 m. from Lecompton on an improved road to the junction with another
improved road; R., 2.5 m., on this road to the STANTON HOME (private), a two-
and-one-half-story structure with a hip roof, built of local limestone, on a thickly
wooded height. This house was erected by Frederick P. Stanton, Territorial Gover
nor in 1857. Weary of the petty strife, he built the structure for seclusion and
during 5 years of residence here invited no guests.
BIG SPRINGS, 56 m. (949 alt., 40 pop.), is a roadside settlement on
the slope of a hill. The springs (now dry) for which the town was named
once flowed a short distance to the north of the townsite. In the 1850*8
this was the only watering place between Lawrence and Deer Creek, just
east of Topeka. The Free State Party held its first convention here in
1855.
Directly across from the yellow brick Community Church, crumbling
stone walls mark the SITE OF THE FIRST UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH in
Kansas, built in the 1850*5.
The parallel depressions on the side of a grassy hill (R), at the east
limits of Big Springs, are the wagon tracks of the Lecompton Trail used
in the i85o s.
The Victory Highway Monument (L), 56.3 m., honors the World War
veterans of Shawnee County.
TECUMSEH, 63.9 m. (860 alt., 350 pop.), once a county seat town
ambitious to become the State capital, is now but a cluster of houses shel
tered by huge elms and maples. The town was founded in 1852 by a party
of proslavery men. Two years later the population numbered almost 2,000.
TOUR 3 343
Plans were made for the erection of a courthouse, and the future of the
busy settlement seemed assured.
Late in 1854 Cyrus K. Holliday, a young lawyer from Carlisle, Pa.,
offered to buy a portion of Tecumseh, but its founders asked too high a
price. Holliday obtained land 5 miles up the river and founded Topeka in
December of that year. By 1856 the two towns, one proslavery and one
Free State, were bitter rivals for designation both as the county seat and
the State capital.
In the first county election, held early in 1858, Tecumseh won the
contest for the county seat but the citizens of Topeka asserted that Tecum-
sch s victory was effected by fraudulent means. In an election held later
that year, Topeka won and Tecumseh began to decline.
The KANSAS VOCATIONAL SCHOOL (L), 67.4 ;;;., housed in two- and
three-story buildings of local limestone on a no-acre campus, is a State
maintained institution. It was founded in 1895 on the plan of the Tus-
kcgee Institute at Tuskegee, Ala., where Negro boys and girls between
the ages of about 10 and 20 years are taught trades. Out-of-town students
live in dormitories on the campus. Enrollment in 1937 was 118.
Beside a spring shaded by a large oak tree at 68.4 ;;;. (R) is a stage
coach station built in the 1850 $; it is now a barn. In the 1850*5 and
i86o s the spring was a watering and camping place for immigrants, gold
seekers, and freighters with their wagon trains. The stone residence in
front of the barn was built later.
At 68.9 m. on the outskirts of Topeka is the junction with California
Ave., a paved street.
Left on California Ave. to the junction with 29th St., graveled, 1.5 m.: L. on
29th St. to 4Oo-acre LAKE SHAWNEE (swimming, boating, fishing), 3 m., in a
i,oi7-acre wooded park. Foot and bridle trails and a lo-mile drive follow the
shore line.
TOPEKA, 71.3 m. (886 alt, 64,120 pop.) (see TOPEKA).
Points of Interest: Statehouse, Washburn College and Mulvane Art Museum,
Kansas State Historical Society with Library and Museum, Gage Park and Reinisch
Rose Garden, State Hospital, Santa Fe Shops.
Topeka is at the junction with US 75 (see Tour 11).
At 74.3 m. is the junction with W. 6th St. (US 40 and Gage Blvd.).
At Gage Blvd. US 40 turns R.
1. Left (straight ahead) on W. 6th St. to the HOME OF ALFRED M. LANDON
(private), 0.5 m. (R), Governor of Kansas (1933-37) and Republican candidate
for the Presidency in 1936. Built of brick, painted white, this Georgian Colonial
mansion overlooking the Kansas River valley was designed by W. E. Glover of
Topeka and completed late in 1937.
2. Left on Gage Blvd. to the junction with State 10 (loth St.), 0.5 m,: R. 2.8 m.
on State 10 the junction with a dirt road; R. 0.2 m. on the dirt road to the OLD
BAPTIST MISSION (open), a three-story stone structure built in 1848, now used as a
barn. The mission was discontinued in 1859. The Indians asked to have it reopened
in 1869 but the Baptist church did not have enough funds to do so.
At 3 m. on Gage Blvd. is the junction with a graveled road; R. 0.7 m. on this
road to BURNETT S MOUND (L), named for Abram Burnett, a Potawatomi
chief who lived at the base of the mound on the south bank of Shunganunga Creek.
Burnett weighed 450 pounds, and was known in eastern Kansas for his intelligence
344 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
and shrewdness. He was born in Michigan about 1811 and came to Kansas in 1848,
where he lived until his death in 1870. His name appears on many of the treaties
made between the Potawatomi and the United States Government.
At 2 m. on the graveled road is the junction with an oil-surfaced road; L. 0.3 m.
on this road to a farmyard gate (R) ; R. 0.8 m. on the trail through a farmyard and
pasture to BURNETT S GRAVE marked by a 12 -foot marble shaft.
US 40 crosses the Kansas River at 75.1 m. on a narrow bridge.
SOLDIER CREEK, at 78.5 m. (R), was the scene of a liquor raid
while Kansas was still Indian territory. Because Congress had passed a law
forbidding the sale of liquor to Indians, Federal soldiers, overtaking a
whiskey trader as he camped on the banks of the stream, dumped his
liquor into the water. The disappointed Indians named the stream Soldier
Creek.
SILVER LAKE, 85.6 m. (913 alt, 336 pop.), on the site of a Pota
watomi village, was named for a lake that once extended south from the
townsite.
To the east of this point is the PROPOSED SITE OF KIRO DAM, a flood-
control project advocated by the U. S. Army Engineer Corps, which would
submerge this valley, necessitating the removal of Wamego and several
other towns, and the abandonment of thousands of acres of rich farm
land. Topeka businessmen favored the project, believing that the pro
posed 5o-mile-long lake and the wages paid thousands of workers during
the 3 years of construction work would enrich the capital city. Residents
of Wamego have led the fight against the building of the dam, protesting
the proposed abandonment of their townsite, and maintaining that the
value of the valley as a food-producing area far exceeds its potential value
as a flood-control project.
Across the railroad tracks from Silver Lake (R) in the Silver Lake
Cemetery, a tall slender shaft on the western slope of a hill is a MONU
MENT TO LA FROMBOISE, chief of the Potawatomi. Several of the chief s
descendants reside nearby.
ROSSVILLE, 91.2 m. (928 alt., 701 pop.), a rural trading center in
the fertile valley of the Kansas River, was founded in 1871 on land that
was formerly part of the Potawatomi Reservation. Many of the early set
tlers in the Rossville area were of French and Belgian descent. The present
townsite of 100 acres was purchased from a pioneer, Anthony Navarre.
First called Edna, the town was renamed for W. W. Ross, the Potawatomi
agent.
During the early years of its existence Rossville was a trading center for
the Potawatomi Prairie Band, whose diminished reservation was a few
miles north of the town. Residents of the frontier village were friendly
with the Indians but they were alarmed June 4, 1876, when nearly 100
armed warriors rode into town at daybreak, awakening the citizens with
war whoops. A contemporary newspaper correspondent wrote: "The occa
sional discharge of a shot and the glimpses one had of brave men darting
hither and thither in their night clothes, armed with everything from a
scythe to a Belgian rifle, led me, with very little stretch of imagination, to
believe and realize that all the horrors of a regular Indian massacre were
being enacted."
TOUR 3 345
The Indians, however, were in pursuit of four horse thieves who had
camped on the city square with a number of ponies stolen from the tribe.
The thieves fired on their pursuers, fatally wounding Chief Lah-Kah-wah,
before they were captured. Rossville men urged the Indians to place the
captives in their custody but the warriors, infuriated by the loss of their
leader, dragged the horse thieves to Cross Creek, west of town, where
their bodies were found a few days later.
ST. MARYS, 98.8 ;>/. (957 alt., 1,304 pop.), a Roman Catholic com
munity, is composed of neat houses set in compact rows flush with the
highway. It had its beginning in a Potawatomi Indian mission founded by
Jesuit missionaries in 1848. In 1878, when the name of the town was
changed from St. Mary s Mission to St. Mary, the U. S. Post Office Depart
ment acquiesced to the citizens request to retain the final "s", but the
railroad still lists the town as "St. Mary."
At the east edge of the town (R) is ST. MARYS COLLEGE (open) on
the site of the old mission of which it is an outgrowth. Many of the
priests in Kansas are ordained here. St. Marys College formerly offered
courses for youths of high school and college age, but, since the early
1930*5, the curriculum has been restricted to clerics. The average enroll
ment is 200.
The brick and limestone college buildings, largely classical in style, are
on a wooded hillside. The college maintains a dairy farm stocked with
purebred Holstein cattle.
Above the entrance to the 2,ooo-acre campus is a MEMORIAL ARCH
dedicated to Lt. William T. Fitzsimmons, one of the first three American
soldiers killed in the World War, and to other alumni who died in the
war.
Just west of the college on US 40 (L) is the CHURCH OF THE IMMACU
LATE CONCEPTION (open), a limestone structure of modified Gothic
design. Within hangs the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (best viewed in
morning light), an original by Benito, Italian court painter of the early
1 6th century. The picture was given to the Potawatomi by Pope Pius IX
and brought to Kansas in 1854 by Bishop Meige. Also prized by local
churchmen is a Latin record of Potawatomi activities, written in 1837 by
Jesuits among whom were Father De Smet (1801-1872), explorer and
Indian missionary, and Father Galliland, founder of St. Mary s Mission.
At 107.6 m. the route crosses the Vermilion River, so-named by the
Indians, according to legend, because the blood of the braves of two war
ring tribes temporarily turned its water red.
WAMEGO (pronounced Wah-me -go), 112.9 m. (989 alt., 1,647
pop.), is a well-kept old town, between the shallow-banked Kansas River
on the south and low rolling hills on the north. Landscaped hillsides on
the outskirts of town add to its attractiveness. In spring boxes of pansies,
the official town flower, brighten the business section.
Wamego does not levy local taxes. The income from municipally owned
utilities defrays the town s expenses, including the maintenance of a
2 5 -bed municipal hospital. Except for a snowplow factory, the town is
dependent on farming.
346 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
The WAMEGO CITY PARK (R), on the east limits of Wamego, was
developed by the volunteer labor of Wamego businessmen, who trans
planted trees from the woods near the river, and built the shelter house,
fireplaces, benches, and fountains with rocks gathered from the hills. The
DUTCH MILL, on the highway (R), was brought stone by stone from a
Pottawatomie County farm where it had been built by a Hollander in
1875 and reassembled here in 1923.
At Wamego is the junction with State 99, graveled.
State 99 branches south and crosses the Kansas River at 0.1 m. This route leads
through the area settled by the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony, which was organized
in New Haven, Conn., in 1856 by ardent abolitionists (see HISTORY). During
a meeting held at North Church prior to the colonists departure, Capt. C. B. Lines,
president of the company, reminded the audience that no provision had been made
for weapons. Henry Ward Beecher, who had just delivered an invective against
slavery, agreed to furnish money for twenty-five rifles if the New Haven citizens
would buy the other twenty-five needed. With his check for $625 Beecher sent a
Bible for each member of the company and a farewell letter prophesying: "You
will not need to use arms where it is known you have them. It is the essence of
slavery to be arrogant before the weak and cowardly before the strong."
FOUR CORNERS, 3 m., is the junction with a graveled road and State 29, a
dirt road.
i. Right 3 m. on State 29 is WABAUNSEE (1,180 alt., 90 pop.), a crossroads
town with a store, a garage, and a cluster of houses flanking a dusty country road.
Most of its first settlers are dead and their descendants have moved away; few of
its original walnut-beamed stone houses remain; and many of the newer residents
are not aware of the town s history.
The Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony which had bought supplies in St. Louis
with a common fund, before steaming up the Missouri to Kansas City in the Clara
arrived here April 28, 1856, and immediately founded the town. They had the
land surveyed into sections and had a committee appraise the various claims. Some
were valued as high as $120, others as low as $5. A large number of the sites were
valued at par, the average for the whole. Then the land was auctioned to the
highest bidders. All the money received for the sites in excess of their appraised
values was prorated among those whose land was valued below par an early-day
version of the "share the wealth" program.
Settlers with land along the river were given the largest bonuses by the com
mittee in the belief that bottom land would breed malaria. Today these bottom
land farms are among the most productive in the State.
A few months after its founding Wabaunsee became a station on the Under
ground Railroad, and the rifles of the colonists were used effectively to prevent
slave owners from capturing fugitives whom they had traced to this point.
The BEECHER BIBLE AND RIFLE CHURCH (open), on the southern outskirts of
the town, is a rectangular stone building. On its sides are three long, narrow win
dows which have their original shutters. Above the front entrance is a tiny rose
window. Atop the church is a squat tower whose bell, once used to call the settlers
to worship, has been silent for years.
The interior is plain. A choir loft, from which an attic leads to the bell tower,
extends across the back wall. The narrow pews hard, square, and uncomfortable
remain in their original places, divided by a center aisle that separates the men s
side from the women s.
When the congregation was organized in 1857 and affiliated with the Congrega
tional Church, it first met in a tent and then in a temporary building until this
structure was finished in 1862. The Reverend Harvey Jones, first pastor, served for
nearly three years. Robert Banks, a resident of the region since 1855 and later a
member of the colony, was the stonemason. Mrs. Banks mixed the mortar.
Throughout his life Beecher retained an interest in the Bible and Rifle Colony,
DUTCH WINDMILL, WAMEGO
and especially in this church in which the colonists met annually to reread the
letter that had accompanied his gifts.
Shortly after the fiftieth anniversary of its organization (June 1907), the con
gregation of the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church began to dwindle. Improved
methods of transportation permitted younger members to attend services in the
more modern Congregational churches of Wamego or Manhattan. In 1920 regular
services were discontinued.
In the WABAUNSEE CEMETERY are the graves of the Goulds, the Cottrells, and
the Mitchells, all members of the original colony.
2. Left 3.2 m. from Four Corners on the gravel road to the HOMESTEAD OF CAPT.
WILLIAM MITCHELL (private), a member of the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony.
The log cabin built by Captain Mitchell in 1857 is the dining room of the present
two-story frame structure. The cabin loft in which fugitive slaves were frequently
hidden in the late 1850 $ is used as a studio by Miss Maude Mitchell, artist-
daughter of Captain Mitchell. Relics in the house include the pulpit Bible of the
Beecher Bible and Rifle Church, a hammer, a rifle, and a broadaxe used by the
colonists, and a Dutch oven taken in a jayhawking raid.
On State 99 at 12 m., in the Mill Creek valley, is ALMA (1,053 alt., 811 pop.),
founded in 1857 and named for the city in Germany whence many of the settlers
came. In addition to their descendants, who form the larger part of the town s
population, Alma has a Negro group, the remnant of a colony of "Exodusters"
(see HISTORY).
The WABAUNSEE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, built in 1931, is a two-story structure
of Carthage stone, designed in the modern style by W. E. Glover, Topeka architect.
Within are a colorful mosaic map of the county and a MUSEUM (open) maintained
by the Wabaunsee County Historical Society. The museum contains a portrait of
34 8 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Chief Wabaunsee of the Potawatomi, for whom the county was named, and a
number of Indian artifacts and pioneer relics.
West of Wamego the road ascends to the crest of the first rim of hills
on the north side of the valley. Scrub oaks line the highway and the slow-
moving Kansas River (L), bordered with elms and cottonwoods, is a silver
line through the expanse of green.
ST. GEORGE, 120.1 m. (993 alt, 216 pop.), which lies in the Black
Jack Hills, is one of the earliest settlements in Pottawatomie County and
the first seat of county government. The contest that resulted in the
removal of the county seat to Westmoreland inflamed the towns in the
county. It was claimed that in Wamego all the employees of the Union
Pacific voted, regardless of their legal place of residence, and that St.
Marys registered names from the tombstones in the old cemetery.
At a filling station 120.3 m. (L), water from Black Jack Springs,
thought by the Potawatomi to have medicinal properties, is dispensed free.
The Big Blue River (as distinguished from the Little Blue, one of its
tributaries) at 125.5 m. empties into the Kansas River. The Kansa had a
good-sized village at this river junction, which, as near as can be identi
fied from the French chronicles, was visited by de Bourgmont, explorer-
trader, in 1724. It was still in existence as late as 1830 when the United
States Army was policing this part of the Louisiana Purchase (see HIS
TORY).
On an unmarked site on the bank of the Big Blue River, believed to be
approximately il/ 2 miles above the point where US 40 crosses the stream,
occurred the only bellicose activities of the Potawatomi in Kansas. The
serene and civilized Potawatomi, enraged by repeated Pawnee raids, went
on the war path in 1851 and virtually annihilated the warriors of that
tribe.
Many Indian relics have been found in this region.
The Flint Hills, known in this section as the Bluestem Hills, crowd
closer to the river east of Manhattan, their blue tops visible in the
distance.
MANHATTAN, 128.9 m. (1,012 alt., 10,136 pop.) (see MAN
HATTAN).
Points of Interest: Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science with
experimental farms, City Park with log museum and monument to Chief Tatarrax,
Amanda Arnold Arch.
Manhattan is at the junction with US 24 (see Tour 2). US 40 branches
southwest (L).
Section b. MANHATTAN to COLORADO LINE, 322.2 m., US 40
This route is through the Kansas wheat belt, the valleys of the Smoky
Hill and Saline Rivers, and the High Plains alternately banded with wheat
and grasslands. The wheat belt, most productive around Abilene, extends
west of Salina. Excellent grazing country with sparsely timbered rocky
hills extends between Brookville and Ellsworth. West of Russell the high-
TOUR 3 349
way traverses vast oil fields, and wheat prairies that ascend gradually
toward the Rocky Mountains.
West of Manhattan, m., US 40 climbs the long, steep grade of STAGG
HILL, the summit of which affords a sweeping view of the river, the
valley, and wooded hills in the distance. The group of institution-like
buildings (R) in the valley is the REBEKAH INDEPENDENT ORDER OF
ODD FELLOWS HOME for the aged (open by permission).
Traffic is heavier between Manhattan and Junction City than on any
other stretch of US 40, except in the immediate vicinity of Kansas City.
OGDEN, 9-9 m. (1,050 alt., 418 pop.), called the "last place on the
map" in the i86o s, is a one-street market town whose limestone buildings
reflect the stolid German influence of Theodore Weichselbaum, pioneer
merchant. A stone structure on the western edge of town (R), later used
as a barn, was an old brewery in the 1870 $. Beer was cooled in a hillside
cave behind the buildings.
(Because of the heavy traffic, sharp curves, and dense timber, cars are
forbidden to pass each other between Port Riley and Junction City.)
US 40 crosses the boundary of the FORT RILEY MILITARY RESER
VATION at 10.9 m.y which covers 24,000 acres of virgin prairie marked
by steep, stony hills (R) and rich bottom land (L). In the growing sea
son this is a good place to observe the various wild grasses, dwarf shrubs,
and flowering plants that originally carpeted the Kansas prairies. Farming
operations have extirpated much native Kansas flora, and even in the un-
plowed sod of the Fort Riley reservation many varieties of plant life have
become extinct because of the gradual impoverishment of the soil.
The SITE OF CAMP FUNSTON (L), 11.7 m., named for Gen. Frederick
Funston (see Tour 12), was one of the largest U. S. military training
camps in use during the World War. A stone MONUMENT TO GEN.
LEONARD A. WOOD (1860-1927) stands in a grove of young cotton-
woods. During the first few months of the camp s existence no rifles or
guns were available so General Wood had his division drill with wooden
rifles, wooden field guns, and even wooden horses. This method proved so
successful that when the animals and ordnance finally arrived the men
quickly acquired complete proficiency. The dim outlines of a network of
roads visible behind the monument are all that remain of the camp of
4,000 buildings which housed 80,000 men.
A chimney silhouetted against the bluff (R), a REMNANT OF GENERAL
WOOD S WARTIME HEADQUARTERS, has become a World War shrine and
steps have been built to it.
Four men were brutally slain and a fifth disfigured for life in a robbery
of the Camp Funston Bank, January 12, 1918. The murdered men were
James Hill, John Oehlsen, Charles F. Winters, founder of the bank, and
John W. Jewell, editor of Trench and Camp, the camp newspaper. After
knocking Winters unconscious with a blow from the butt of his pistol,
the murderer forced Kearney Wornall, a bank employee, to bind and gag
Hill, Jewell and Oehlsen. As the four men lay helpless on the floor, he
killed them with a hand axe and then attacked Wornall.
Customers who entered the little frame building a few minutes later
350 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
found it a shambles. The safe and cash drawers had been ransacked.
Recovering consciousness later in the day, Wornall said that he believed
he could identify his assailant. As this news spread through the camp it
reached Capt. Lewis R. Whisler, Company E, 345th Infantry. "Is it true
that Wornall will recover?" he asked excitedly of a corporal whom he
heard discussing the affair with another soldier. Assured that it was, the
captain turned away remarking, "Then they will catch the murderer,"
walked into his quarters and ended his life by firing two bullets into his
head. Most of the stolen money, approximately $62,000 in bloodstained
currency, was found hidden in the wall of Captain Whisler s quarters.
Officers of the camp said that the captain had been acting strangely for
some time and expressed the opinion that he had become mentally de
ranged from overwork. He was a former resident of Salina.
PAWNEE FLATS (R), 13.7 m., is an old rifle range opposite the SITE
OF PAWNEE (L), which was Kansas first "permanent" Territorial capital
and the Free State town that Andrew Reeder, first Governor of Kansas
Territory, was accused of having promoted for his own profit.
The OLD CAPITOL, a two-story limestone building, was restored by the
Union Pacific R.R. and is maintained as a public MUSEUM (open), fur
nished as it was in the 1 850*5. The building was used as the State capitol
for 4 days, before the proslavery majority unseated the Free Staters and
adjourned to Shawnee Mission. The proslavery administration at Wash
ington included the site of Pawnee in the military reservation and thus
disposed of Reeder s Free State boom town.
CAMP WHITESIDE (R), 14.2 m. (permission to enter buildings or
quarters, obtainable from officer in charge), has long rows of gray bar
racks backed by green hills ribbed with rimrock. According to local
legend, this is the terrain reproduced on the Kansas State seal. These hills
are the locale of Tawny and Silver and other animal stories by Dr. Thomas
C. Hinkle. Camp Whiteside is used in summer by the Kansas and the
Missouri National Guards, and other reserve military units.
FORT RILEY, 14.6 m. (1,064 alt., 3,500 pop.), is the only cavalry
school maintained by the United States Army.
The Cavalry School Horseshow (adm. free), and Race Meet (nominal
admission fee), held during the last week in May, are annual events that
draw visitors from many parts of the country. Polo games at intervals
throughout the spring and summer months also attract large crowds.
The permanent garrison consists of three cavalry regiments (one
Negro) ; a field artillery battalion; a company of mounted engineers; an
air corps squadron; the cavalry school detachment; the school for bakers
and cooks; the detachments for quartermaster; medical, veterinary, and
signal corps; ordnance department; and chemical warfare service. School
for Reserve and National Guard officers and non-commissioned officers of
the mounted service are also maintained.
In 1852 the movement of caravans on the Santa Fe Trail and the en
croachment of trappers, so aroused the Indians that it became necessary
to protect travelers. In October of that year, Maj. E. A. Ogden, Quarter
master at Fort Leavenworth, then the westernmost point, was ordered to
TERRITORIAL CAPITOL, FORT RILEY
select a suitable site for a station near the confluence of the Smoky Hill
and Republican Rivers. Maj. R. H. Chilton and Troop B of the dragoons
were the escort for the party, who named the site Camp Center. Construc
tion was begun in 1853 and it was renamed in honor of Maj. Gen. Bennett
Riley of Buffalo, N. Y.
In 1855 Congress appropriated funds to transform Fort Riley into a
cavalry post and laborers were brought in from Missouri. More than a
hundred persons, mostly civilians, died of cholera at the fort that summer.
The main body of troops, away on an Indian campaign, escaped the
epidemic.
After the Civil War the construction of the Kansas Pacific R.R. caused
serious Indian uprisings. Troops were needed to protect settlers and rail
road workmen; thus in 1866 the yth Cavalry was organized at the post.
The Indian campaigns of 1867 and 1868 took the yth northward and
westward, ending Fort Riley s brief importance as the center of opera
tions. Col. A. J. Smith was in charge of the post, with George A. Custer
second in command. The exceedingly small garrison was not increased
until 1869, when a school of light artillery was established and main
tained for two years.
In 1887 Congress passed a bill which provided for the School of Appli
cation for Cavalry and Light Artillery at Fort Riley. The school was
organized in 1891 under Col. James W. Forsyth of the 7th Cavalry,
Custer s old command, but an adequate curriculum was not offered until
35 2 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
1904. In 1908 the name was changed to Mounted Service School. In 1917
the instruction personnel was ordered away, and from then until after the
World War the post became a training center for reserve officers.
At Fort Riley is the junction with the camp s main drive, paved, which
encircles the grounds.
Left on the main drive in the order named are the officers swimming pool, the
stadium, apartments, enlisted men s swimming pool, cavalry headquarters, a sub-
post exchange and post office, the post baker, and the motor transportation garage
and shops. Right around the post bakery, then L. at an intersection across the
Kansas River on a ONE-WAY BRIDGE brought from France after the World War
(watch clock at either end to make sure no vehicle is coming from other direction)
to Marshal Field, Fort Riley s airdrome. Return across the bridge, turn west on
Custer Ave. to the East Riding Hall, Cavalry Headquarters, the Post Headquarters
Library and Telephone Exchange, the book department salesroom and the printing
plant, the post Theater, the post exchange and the bowling alleys, the post guard
house, and the swimming pool. Right on Pleasanton Ave. to Sheridan Ave.; L. on
Sheridan Ave. to Waters Hall and the Wounded Knee Monument, a memorial to
the yth Cavalry, which was led against the Sioux in South Dakota by Col. James
W. Forsyth. Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles s report of the "disaster" includes: "the
unfortunate affair at Wounded Knee Creek December 29, 1890 in which 30 officers
and soldiers and 200 Indians (men, women, and children) were killed or mortally
wounded, prolonged the disturbance. ..." "For his (Forsyth s) conduct on that
day and the previous day Col. Forsyth was relieved from command." A few yards
north of the Wounded Knee Monument is US 40.
The OGDEN MONUMENT (L), 14.8 m., on a hillside overlooking Fort
Riley, is built on the site described by early surveyors as the geographical
center of the continental United States. This monument, in memory of
Maj. E. A. Ogden, who died at Fort Riley in 1855 during an epidemic of
cholera, was erected in the i88o s.
Behind Ogden Monument (L) is a NATIONAL CEMETERY established
in 1855 during the cholera epidemic. Here is the GRAVE OF BVT. MAJ.
FREDERIK A. A. ROSENCRANTZ (1825-1879), who, trained as an officer
of the Royal Guard of Sweden, offered his sword in defense of the Union
and served in the Army of the Potomac.
JUNCTION CITY, 18.9 m. (1,077 alt - 7>47 PP-)> seat of Gear 7
County, has developed as a trading point for soldiers from the Fort Riley
Reservation. Its old stone houses show the influence of Swedish stone
masons. Junction City is the boyhood home of Bertram Hartman, New
York artist, and Dr. Thomas C. Hinkle, author of animal stories.
Founded in 1858 and so-named because it is at the junction of the
Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers, Junction City became the seat of Davis
County, organized in 1855 and named for Jefferson Davis, then Secretary
of War. In 1889 the county was renamed in honor of John W. Geary,
third Territorial Governor of Kansas.
In the early days Junction City was near the Kansa reservation and
tribesmen frequently visited the city. Once in 1867 a Kansa war party
arrived, much to the alarm of the pioneer residents. The Kansa had just
met the fierce Cheyenne in a bitter encounter, and had taken 25 enemy
scalps. They offered the scalps for sale on the streets of the town. Some
were purchased by the townspeople at prices ranging as low as 10 cents
each.
TOUR 3 353
On the dining room walls of the BARTEL HOUSE, a three-story, red
brick hotel of Victorian design at the northwest corner of 6th and Wash
ington Sts., are murals of scenes from the life of Robin Hood, painted by
Bertram Hartman (see ART). The hotel was built in the 1890 $. On its
south wall is a bronze tablet marking the site of an old stone house in
which settlers took refuge from Indians in 1861. Across the street at the
entrance to the City Park is a monument in memory of Civil War heroes.
At the end of W. 6th St. is a children s playground (flower gardens,
swimming pools, tennis courts, fireplaces, tables).
The MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM, on Jefferson St. between 8th and 9th
Sts., was built as a PWA project, the city and the Federal Government
sharing the cost of $213,600. It is a two-story structure of brick and lime
stone, designed in the modern style by Charles Shaver of Salina. The
auditorium, which has a seating capacity of 1,800, is used for conven
tions, athletic events, theatrical performances, and community social gath
erings. The building was dedicated by Gov. Walter A. Huxman, March
6, 1937, at the climax of a three-day "munifesta." Visitors from all over
the State attended and hundreds of couples danced in the auditorium to
music provided by an orchestra imported for the occasion. The building
also contains the offices of city officials and the police and fire depart
ments.
Some of the best building material in Kansas is the magnesium lime
stone quarried from the bluffs around Junction City.
Junction City is at the junction with US 77 (see Tour 10). Between
this place and 20.9 m. US 77 and US 40 are one route (see Tour 10).
In CHAPMAN, 30.3 m. (1,113 a ^- 8l 9 PP-)> trading center for a
stock-raising area, is the FIRST COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL in the United
States. This three-story structure of local limestone, built in 1889 and still
in use, stands on US 40 (R) on the west edge of town. The brick wing is
a later addition. The idea of establishing a State-wide system of county
high schools was conceived in the early i88o s by Prof. J. H. Canfield of
the University of Kansas, father of Dorothy Canfield Fisher, novelist.
Through his efforts the legislature enacted a bill in 1887, providing for
the establishment of high schools in all Kansas counties with populations
exceeding 5,000. Within a few years the legislatures of almost every State
in the Union had enacted similar bills.
THE MULBERRIES (private), on US 40 (R) at the extreme west edge
of town, was the home of Henry Varnum Poor, the artist and potter (see
ART), born in Chapman in 1888. This two-story frame structure, named
for nearby mulberry trees, is occupied by the painter s sister and brother-
in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Stone.
Two of Poor s paintings are in the CHAPMAN BANK (open 9-4 week
days). The first, above the cashier s desk at the right of the entrance, is a
marine study of the California coast. The other, on the rear wall of the
room, is a scene in the Garden of the Gods near M.initou, Colo.
Aberdeen Angus cattle, from the herd which Sir George Grant brought
to Victoria in the 1870 $, are raised extensively in this area. Better Live
Stock Day, attended by several thousand persons from many parts of the
354 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
United States and occasionally from foreign countries, is held every spring
on a farm near town. West of Chapman (R) is an old INDIAN BURIAL
GROUND.
At 35.8 m. is the junction with State 43.
Left on State 43 is ENTERPRISE, 1.5 m. (1,150 alt., 764 pop.), a milling town,
to which Carry Nation came, uninvited, in the 1900*5 and, in the absence of the
saloonkeeper, demolished his property with an axe. The women of Enterprise, re
garding this act as unladylike, pelted Carry with rotten eggs and ran her out of
town.
Just east of Abilene the valley widens, the soil becomes sandier, and the
hills along the valley s rim are softened with a blue haze. Wheat fields
increase in size and number, their broad expanse broken at intervals by
fields of emerald green alfalfa.
This region was settled in the iSyo s and i88o s by Germans from
Wisconsin who lived in ox-drawn wagons until they built their homes. In
later years the settlers declared that they came to Kansas because they had
heard that here they might pull and eat turnips in the fields on Christmas.
During the hardships that followed their moving, the pioneers often won
dered why they had left comfortable homes for the occasional privilege of
pulling turnips in December.
ABILENE (Syr., grassy plain), 41.5 m. (1,161 alt, 5,658 pop.), at
the confluence of Turkey Creek and the Smoky Hill River, is a prosperous-
looking town, its streets lined with well-kept lawns and the rambling
comfortable houses of retired farmers.
Abilene, seat of Dickinson County, one of the most productive wheat-
raising counties in the State, is an important shipping point for farm
produce. Its hotel facilities, unusually good for a town of its size, make
it a popular convention center. Since 1934 the National Coursing Asso
ciation has held a spring and a fall meeting in Abilene. Greyhounds from
many parts of the United States are entered in the events and although the
association does not make official awards it recognizes the winning animals
as national champions. Large kennels are maintained in and near the city.
The annual Central Kansas Free Fair is held here in September.
Abilene in the i86o s was one of the roughest towns in the Middle
West and perhaps the most widely known of all the Kansas cow towns.
On the post office lawn, at the north edge of the business section, is a
boulder marking the TERMINUS OF THE CHISHOLM CATTLE TRAIL over
which more than 3 million head of cattle were driven in the i86o s and
iSyo s.
When Abilene was made the terminus of the Union Pacific R.R., the
Chisholm Trail was extended northward to the railhead. Joseph G. McCoy,
an Illinois cattleman, saw the possibilities of creating a huge market for
Texas cattle here and built stockyards covering several acres of the east
edge of town to accommodate 3,000 cattle. Throughout Texas he adver
tised Abilene as an excellent place to market. The next spring thousands
of Texas longhorns were herded northward on the Chisholm Trail.
The origin of the lunch wagon, a night-life feature of western towns
before the automobile age, is attributed to cow town days in Abilene.
TOUR 3 355
When the Texas cattle trade was at its height in 1871, as many as 5,000
cowboys were often paid off simultaneously here. Hotels and restaurants
\vere not available for an army like this, so the cowboys slept on the
prairie and ate at their chuck wagons. The only accommodations they
wanted were saloons, gambling houses, and brothels that blared all night.
The chuck wagons of the various outfits were rolled into town to feed
their carousing members. From this grew the custom that prevailed from
Kansas City to New Mexico, of hauling lunch wagons downtown at night
and parking them in front of saloons.
"Texas Abilene" was on the south side of the railroad tracks where the
longhorns were driven into stock pens to await shipment while the Texas
cowpunchers camped nearby. Facing the tracks today in that section of
Abilene is the OLD GULF HOUSE, now called the National Hotel, a flat-
roofed, two-story limestone structure opened in 1871.
In the early days the "tough district," a mile and a half north of town,
consisted of 25 or 30 one-story frame houses each with 10 to 20 rooms,
later this district was known as "McCoy s addition" and "Devil s Half-
Acre." The Abilene Chronicle stated in 1871 that there were more
cat-throats and desperadoes in Abilene than in any other town its size on
the continent.
When Abilene was incorporated in 1869, an attempt was made to
"clean up." After many marshals had been either killed or driven out,
Tom Smith, of Kit Carson, Colo., applied. Polite, soft-voiced, deferential,
yet courageous, he enforced a deadly-weapon ordinance and the licensing
of saloons.
Wild Bill (James Butler) Hickok, the best-known gunman in the old
West, succeeded Tom Smith as marshal of Abilene. Wild Bill s feats with
revolvers were almost fabulous. He could dent a tossed coin with a bullet
before it hit the ground. With a gun in each hand, he could keep a
tomato can dancing in the dust. He could perforate a hat brim while it
spun in the air. While serving as marshal in Abilene, he killed two mur-
cerers fleeing in opposite directions so rapidly that a boy witness swore
en oath that only one shot had been fired.
Referring to Hickok s shotgun patrol of Abilene, Mayor McCoy later
said, "Talk about a rule of iron! We had it! But we had to kill a few
roughs." Wild Bill s flair for picturesque dress approached dandyism. At
the height of his career he gave up the fringed and beaded buckskins of
his scouting days, and affected a Prince Albert coat, checked trousers, and
an embroidered waistcoat. Sometimes a silk-lined cape completed the out
fit. He carried silver-mounted pearl-handled revolvers when dressed up;
for everyday wear he favored a pair of heavy double-action army pistols.
Hickok was credited with 43 killings before he came to Abilene where,
according to some biographers, he increased his total to 100. "There is no
use in trying to override Wild Bill, the marshal," warned the Chronicle.
his arrangements for policing the city are complete and attempts to kill
police officers or in any way create disturbance, must result in loss of life
on the part of violators of the law."
Philosophizing on his record in manslaughter, Wild Bill once remarked,
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
"Killing a bad man shouldn t trouble one anymore than killing a rat, or a
mad dog."
Eastern writers made a hero of Wild Bill and a theatrical producer had
a play written about him in which Hickok "killed" a number of "Indians"
by firing blanks at them. The troupe toured the country east of the Missis
sippi and played in New York ; by the time they reached St. Louis, Hickok,
bored with stage life, wished to end his contract, but the other actors pro
tested. In the next performance Hickok stood over the "dead Indians,"
blistering their bare thighs with hot wads from his gun until they jumped
over the footlights and ran shrieking up the aisle to the street. Wild Bill
chased them to the river, into which they plunged and swam away. When
they returned all agreed to the cancellation of the contract.
In 1876 Wild Bill joined the gold rush to the Black Hills. While in a
friendly poker game in Deadwood, S. Dak., he was killed by Jack McCall,
a drunken, cross-eyed gambler. Lurching into the saloon, McCall shot Wild
Bill in the back of the head. Hickok slumped over the table, with his out
spread fingers holding the "dead man s hand" aces and eights!
SOLOMON, 51.8 m. (1,171 alt, 1,032 pop.), surrounded by wheat
fields, is a shipping center, and a junction point on the Union Pacific R.R.
At 54.8 m. US 40 crosses the Solomon River, a shallow stream flowing
between banks fringed with cottonwoods. Early day scouts saw this stream
drunk dry by an immense herd of buffalo.
NEW CAMBRIA (Lat, Wales), 59.7 m. (1,200 alt, 130 pop.), a
shipping point, arouses to activity only during the wheat harvesting season.
Formerly New Cambria was called Donmyer for an early settler. Wood
ward s Ferry, once operated northeast of town on the Saline River, was
marked on the map of the first governmental survey of Kansas Territory.
At 62.5 m. is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road is an INDIAN OSSUARY (adm. 25$), 1 m., protected by a small
frame structure on the farm of George E. Kohr. Here, preserved just as they were
when unearthed in October 1936, are 109 whole skeletons and other bones. Dr.
Waldo R. Wedel, assistant curator of archeology of the U. S. National Museum,
Smithsonian Institution, and A. T. Hill, Director of the Nebraska Historical Society
Museum, Lincoln, Nebr., who visited the site consider this one of the most remark
able archeological finds in the Middle West. Archeologists believe that the pit was
a communal burial place for members of one of the Plains tribes. Four layers of
skeletons have been unearthed in the pit, the majority of which lie on their right
sides in a flexed position, facing the rising sun. Necklaces of clam-shell beads,
pottery, and other artifacts found here are on display. Because no glass beads or
metal objects have been uncovered, it is thought that these Indians were buried be
fore white men reached this part of Kansas. The first skeleton in the pit was found
by Howard Kohr, whose interest in archeological work had been aroused by the
discovery (July 1936) and excavation of the site of an Indian lodge on his farm
near the present burial pit. G. L. Whiteford, Salina police sergeant and amateur
archeologist, discovered the lodge; because of the extremely delicate work required
in the excavation of the burial pit, Whiteford supervised this work also.
Looming against the sky a few miles east of Salina are the great hulks
of gray-white grain elevators.
SALINA, 65.5 m. (1,220 alt, 20,155 pop.) (see SALINA).
Points of Interest: St. John s Military College, Wesleyan University, Marymount
College, and others.
1
AT THE AUCTION, HORTON
Salina is at the junction with US 81 (see Tour 9)-
The bluffs and hills west of Salina are rich in paleontological remains.
Fossils of marine shells, sea reptiles, and fishes, bones and teeth of prehis
toric animals, and petrified wood and leaves have been found here.
BROOKVILLE, 81 ;//. (1,353 a ^-> 2 37 PP-)> * s a refreshing oasis in
treeless farming country. Many years ago the Union Pacific sponsored the
planting of maples in the small city park here, and today some of their
trunks measure more than 14 feet in circumference.
Surrounding the town are picturesque hills, used by Jesse James (1847-
82) and his gang as a hide-out. The town was a popular camp site for
gold seekers and pioneers bound westward in covered wagons. A land
mark in the little town is the OLD CENTRAL HOTEL, a two-story building
of local limestone, noted for its cuisine since the iSyo s. It is now oper
ated (1938) by a daughter of the first proprietor.
Shortly after it was founded in 1871 Brookville was the scene of an
Indian raid. Warned of the Indians approach by the crew of a train from
the west, the settlers took refuge in the roundhouse to await the attack.
The Indians had surrounded the building and were piling railroad ties
against the wooden doors to burn the settlers out, when an engine under
steam crashed out through the doors, rolled across the turntable, and,
358 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
whistle shrieking and bell ringing, started to Salina for help. The Indians
fled.
In the JOHNSON ROCK GARDEN (open to visitors), on the north edge
of Brookville, is an unusual collection of native stones.
West of Brookville US 40 crosses hilly pasture country, broken by
clumps of cottonwoods. Dull green rocks, red soil, red water in the ponds,
white ranch houses, cattle, and occasional trees against a background of
grotesque hills form the landscape. Kafir corn is grown in the valleys.
This country is part of the High Plains, a semiarid region.
At 97.1 m. is the junction with a graveled road.
Left on this road is KANOPOLIS, 2.4 m. (1,576 alt., 860 pop.), one of the
most extensive "paper" towns ever conceived. It was founded in 1886 and for a
time the promoters kept presses busy day and night printing advertisements of what
they dreamed was to be a big city by 1900. The site was laid out to accommodate
150,000 inhabitants and lots sold for as much as $1,000 apiece. Four blocks were
reserved for the statehouse which, in 1893, the Populist Party tried to move here
from Topeka.
Kanopolis was built on the SITE OF OLD FORT HARKER, a military post estab
lished in 1864. As an operating and distributing point, Fort Marker was one of the
most important posts west of the Mississippi. It was abandoned in 1873. West of
the post office on Ohio Street, Kanopolis main business thoroughfare, is the OLD
GENERAL HEADQUARTERS (private), a two-story building, now used as an apart
ment house. The lower half of the building is constructed of local brown sand
stone, the upper half of frame. The OFFICERS QUARTERS (private), across the
street from the General s Headquarters, two sandstone cottages of Georgian
Colonial design, are used as dwellings. Two blocks west on Ohio Street (R) is the
OLD GUARDHOUSE (private), a square two-story structure, of local sandstone. The
interior has been converted into apartments.
Today a majority of the people of Kanopolis, of which a large part are Mexicans,
are employed in the salt mines.
Salt mining is an important industry in this region. The salt stratum, at
a depth of 650 feet is 185 feet in thickness. SALT MINES (permission to
enter obtainable -from superintendent), are visible from the highway at
intervals.
At ELLSWORTH, 101.4 m. (1,534 alt -> 2 >7 2 PP-)> se at of Ellsworth
County, called the forest city because of its variety of trees, the wheat belt
overlaps the grazing country. Founded in 1869, the settlement was named
for Lt. Allen Ellsworth, Company H, yth Iowa Cavalry. As the rails
pushed westward Ellsworth had its day as a "wild and woolly" cow town,
but it is now a progressive agricultural community with law-abiding citi
zens, good schools, many churches, and comfortable homes. As a cattle-
shipping center in the iSyo s, it was characterized by rowdyism, gambling,
and crime. Not all the bad men who left their bones in Ellsworth died
with their boots on, however, for cholera broke out in the middle i88o s
and scores of bodies were hastily buried in unmarked graves about the
settlement.
The Grand Central Hotel, built in 1872, is now known as the WHITE
HOUSE and stands on N. Main St. On the old registers are the names of
Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok.
At the southern edge of Ellsworth is the MOTHER BICKERDYKE HOME
(open by permission), named for Mary Bickerdyke, Civil War nurse. The
TOUR 3 359
institution was founded in the late 1890 $ as a home for Civil War nurses
and the mothers, widows, and daughters of Civil War veterans. It is main
tained by the State and houses approximately 50 women. There are a num
ber of cottages, a hospital, and a cluster of low frame and stone buildings
in a i6o-acre park. Future plans for the home include the admission of
World War nurses and near female relatives of World War soldiers.
Right from Ellsworth on State 14, improved, to LINCOLN, 25 in. (1,374 alt.,
2 pop.), called Lincoln Center by its founder, who planned to make it the seat
of Lincoln County. The town was platted May 9, 1871. It and the county \vt re
named for Abraham Lincoln. In a referendum held February 19, 1872, Lincoln
Center received 232 votes, Abram, its rival, 1-6. Soon after the election most of the
buildings in Abram were placed upon wheels and moved across the prairie to this
place.
In 1879 Lincoln was incorporated as a city of the third class. A railroad con
necting the city with Salina makes it a shipping point for wheat and livestock.
Qu.i; nd limestone are quarried locally, an industry that provides considerable
employment
The MCDONALD BLACKSMITH SHOP, 134 N. 4th St., a one-story frame structure
formerly a dwelling, is the only remaining building of the onetime town of Abram.
Right from Lincoln 1.8 in. on State 18 to the junction with an improved road;
R. here 2.1 m. to the ABRAM MONUMENT (L), a triangular sandstone boulder on
the site of the first town in Lincoln County. The shallow depression near the
monument is the cellar of the first courthouse, built in 1871.
Abram was organized on a bitterly cold day in January 1871, and immediately
designated a temporary county seat. When Lincoln was founded the following
spring an intense rivalry developed between the two towns. Late in the summer
I-/.ra Hubbard and John Healey of Abram had an argument about the ownership of
a piece of timber Hubbard was using in the construction of a mill. Healey accused
the miller of stealing his timber; Hubbard, enraged, seized his carbine and killed
Healey. The slayer was arrested and placed in jail.
Soon a drunken mob of 40 or 50 men gathered, clamoring for vengeance. The
authorities, it was related, made no serious efforts to protect their prisoner and
the mob burst into the building, seized Hubbard and beat him insensible. Later one
of the mob leaders returned and crushed Hubbard s skull with a mallet.
Citizens of Lincoln made much of this lawless episode in their arguments for
moving the county seat. A man named Buzick was tried for Hubbard s murder and
acquitted. Abram jealously tightened its hold on the county government, but the
voters sealed its doom in the following year.
At 2.6 in. on this road is the junction with a dirt road; L. here to the MOFFATT
MONUMENT, 0.8 m., a quartzite boulder in a pasture 100 feet (L) from the road,
which commemorates four buffalo hunters killed by the Cheyenne. During the
desperate attempts of the Indians in 1864 to repel the white invaders who were
destroying the buffalo, their food supply, two brothers named Moffatt, and their
companions, Houston and Tyler, were surprised and slain near here by a band of
100 Cheyenne.
Indian raids were frequent at the time. War parties of Kiowa, Pawnee, and
Cheyenne roamed the region until the early 1870*5 and the settlers were in constant
fear of attack. Most dreaded of all the roving bands were the Dog Indians, or Dog
soldiers (Kiowa and Cheyenne), whose sworn purpose was the extermination of
the white invaders. They were a blood brotherhood and chose their own leaders,
whose authority they recognized as superior to that of hereditary tribal chiefs.
Often, when the tribes were pledged to peace with the white men, the Dog soldiers
ignored the truce and continued to raid the settlements.
WILSON, 117.2 m. (1,684 aIt -> I >3 8 PP-) is a ^ arm market and
milling town. Its promoters, prophesying that it would be the wildest, big
gest, and boomingest cow town in the West, called it Bosland (Lat., bos,
3^0 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
ox or /;////), a name that survives only on the town plats and recorded
deeds.
At 12-1.7 ///. is the junction with an improved road.
Kight on this road in LUCAS, 19 m. (1,493 alt., 630 pop.J, is the GARDEN OF
I .DI-.N (open), once (he home of S. P. Dinsmoor. The house, built of concrete logs
(o resemble early log cabins, was completed in 1907. It is surrounded by scores of
concrete figures all made by Dinsmoor from more than 113 tons of cement.
In front of the house the figures of Adam and Eve with out-stretched arms form
an entrance arch. A concrete serpent coils in a treetop above them; a concrete devil
leers from a nearby roof.
Dinsmoor died in 1932 at the age of 89. His embalmed body lies in a concrete
coffin of his own fashioning, covered with a glass top. This coffin, which was dis
played by him before his death, is in a niche in the wall of the mausoleum and
below it lies the body of his first wife in a steel vault entirely encased in concrete.
Poised on the roof of the mausoleum is a concrete angel. Over all is poised a red,
white, add hluc 1 concrete (lag.
West of Wilson oil derricks appear as grey skeletons against the sky.
RUSSELL, 140.3 ;//. (1,828 alt., 2,352 pop.), in the center of the oil
district, was established in the iHyo s by a colony of 70 settlers from
Ripon, Wis. They were "good, sober, industrious people," according to
old accounts, who allowed neither gambling nor saloons. The town s popu
lation today is made up largely of people of German-Russian descent, also
rated good, sober, and industrious although they were never prohibi
tionists.
WALKER, 152.3 m. (2,000 alt., no pop.), is a tiny German-Russian
settlement built about QUI-I-N ANNE S CHURCH (Roman Catholic), a
limestone structure of modified Gothic design, which serves as the center
of spiritual and social life lor the frugal and industrious farmers of the
surrounding wheat area.
Left from Walker on a dirt road to the junction with another dirt road, 5 m.;
R. on this, at the confluence of Victoria and Bit; Creek, is the REMNANT OF OLD
l ; our l- i I it ill K, 5.5 ":., established in iSos to protect scattered settlers and workers
in railroad construction camps from the Indians. The crumbling ruins of one stone
building, the old riile pits, and the roasting pits used by settlers and construction
men remain.
In HHI W. D. Phillip and sons, ranchers in the vicinity, erected on the site of
the fort a MONUMI-NT TO I-I.I/.AHI-TH A. CUSTI-R, wife of General Custer. Mrs.
Custer narrowly escaped death here in 1867 when a flood damaged the fort.
VICTORIA, 156.5 m. (1,919 alt., 637 pop.), is a German-Russian com
munity built to resemble a native Russian village. Houses with sharply
peaked roots are flush with the street. Heavy, solid-wood shutters cover
the windows and many of the structures have only a back door, which
opens onto a rectangular court. In Russia peasants working on their dis
tant farms came into their village homes only for weekends to trade and
attend church; this type of building protected their homes from raids of
the wild, roving Kirghis tribes. The persistence of this architecture in
Kansas is attributed to a similar fear of Indians.
Victoria is the center of German-Russian settlements totaling approxi
mately so,ooo persons in Russell, Ellis, Trcgo, and Rush Counties. Al
though their neighbors refer to these people as Russians, or "Rooshans,"
they are of pure German blood, their ancestors having migrated to Russia
WATER BOY
as did the Mennonites upon the invitation of Catherine the Great in the
1 760*5. Slightly more than a century later, their descendants came to
America when a successor of Catherine revoked the privileges they had en
joyed under her rule.
Roman Catholic in faith, the settlers have retained many of their orig
inal customs, especially those associated with the church. They are thrifty
and industrious, and for the most part have remained close to the soil.
Many attend several or all of the masses on Sundays as well as the aft
ernoon services, vespers, and benediction. Feast and holy days are cele
brated with special services. On the feast of Corpus Christi every man,
woman, and child takes part in a procession that, weather permitting,
winds about the countryside, making a circuit of nearby villages. The
marchers recite the rosary and litanies while members of the choir sing
Latin and German hymns.
During divine services the conduct of even the younger children is very
devout. Occasionally worshippers pray with outstretched arms symbolizing
the crucified Saviour. Special prayers, often attended by members of the
entire community, are offered for the repose of the souls of the dead ; and
children are usually baptized immediately after birth.
Rising magnificently from the low houses around it are the two spires
362 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
of the ST. FIDELIS CHURCH, called by William Jennings Bryan the Cathe
dral of the Prairies. Designed by John R. Comes of Pittsburgh, Pa., and
Joseph Marshall of Topeka, the structure is 221 feet long and 73 feet
wide with a transept 107 feet in width. Built of local limestone and Ro
manesque in style, its two towers are 141 feet high. The church seats 1,700
persons, almost three times the population of the town.
Victoria was originally two colonies. German-Russians settled to the
north of the present townsite in 1875 and English colonists settled directly
south of it in 1871. The two were not united under the name of Victoria
until 1913.
Sir George Grant, of London, conceived the idea of founding an Eng
lish colony in America and in 1871 bought a large tract of land from the
Union Pacific R.R. and platted a townsite which he named Victoria in
honor of Queen Victoria. During the next year he advertised in England
and in 1873 returned to America with a shipload of young Englishmen-
sons of wealthy families who had regular remittances from home. With
the colonists, also came a shipment of fine horses, Aberdeen Angus cattle,
and Southdown sheep.
The young English colonists, uninterested in cattle raising, spent the
greater part of their time riding over the prairie in pursuit of jack rabbits
and coyotes. Freed from parental restrictions, they frequented saloons and
dance halls and lived with joyous abandon. Several longed for their native
lakes, so they dammed Big Creek and impounded enough water to make
navigation possible for a distance of 8 or 9 miles. A steamboat, brought
across the prairie by floating it in the streams and rivers whenever possible
and pulling it in large oxcarts at other times, was launched in Big Creek.
One historian says, "Kansas has witnessed many incongruous spectacles.
There have been gold mining enterprises, street cars traversing little else
than raw prairies, red-coated Britons galloping over the buffalo grass and
other such paradoxes but never before or since was there such a mirage-
like sight as a steamboat chugging along in the midst of the prairie filled
with a cargo of young British merrymakers."
Finally the colonists indifference and a series of droughts reduced the
income from the Victoria Colony to the vanishing point. At the end of 5
years the project collapsed and the colonists moved to other parts of the
United States or returned to England.
The German-Russians, who in the meantime had founded the colony of
Herzog to the north, were prepared by heritage and training for life on
the prairies. Skilled in agriculture, they prospered from the first and their
enthusiastic reports of the fine conditions in America brought new mem
bers; eventually they absorbed the deserted site of the English colony,
which became the seat of the settlement.
On US 40 is a stone marking the GRAVE OF SIR GEORGE GRANT (R),
who lived long enough to see the lands he had obtained for his country
men owned by others.
i. Right from Victoria on an improved road to the junction with a dirt road,
G m.; L. on this road is CATHERINE, 10 m. (2,000 alt., 625 pop.), a German-
Russian agricultural village founded in 1876 by the first emigrants to leave the
TOUR 3 363
lower Volga region in Russia for settlement in Kansas. Their ancestors had been
invited into Russia by Empress Catherine the Great to set up colonies, which she
hoped would form models for her backward peasants. Dominating the village is
ST. CATHERINE S CHURCH (Roman Catholic), an imposing Gothic-type struc-
t ire of local stone. Its classically proportioned twin spires dominate miles of level
ountryside. In the church is a revered relic of the earliest days of the colony a
rjde WOODEN CROSS. For several years, until thc-y were able to build a church, the
sutlers held their services in the open air at the foot of this cross.
2. Left from Victoria on an improved road is PFEIFER, 10 m. (2,000 alt., 200
pop.), home of German-Russian immigrants from a town of that name in Russia.
At Pfeifer is the HOLY CROSS CHURCH (Roman Catholic) with three steeples on
the west facade. The center one with a bell loft is 150 feet high. Over the main
e itrance a mosaic by Brachi, a Venetian artist, shows the return of Christ as judge
of mankind. Upon the tile floor at the entrance is the inscription: Mein Haus ist ein
1 cthaus (Ger., My house is a house of prayer).
On the large LANG FARM (open), 160.6 m. (R), once known as the
Behan Ranch, is a barn with an immense clock installed in 1880. Its face
is 6 feet in diameter, its pendulum weighs 50 pounds, and the minute
hand is 3.7 feet long. Huge stones on long ropes, used as weights, are
held by ratchets and drawn up by a hand crank. When the clock strikes
the hours it can be heard for miles.
HAYS, 166.5 m. (2,000 alt., 4,618 pop.), is a neat town, with a long
main street lined with two- and three-story brick and limestone buildings.
A trading point for a large wheat-raising area, Hays business activity
slumped noticeably with the years of drought and crop failures in the
e.irly 1930*5, but climbed to new heights in 1936 when oil fields were de
veloped in the vicinity. The once quiet streets and hotel lobbies are
crowded with oil-field workers and oil speculators, and each new well
brings a period of feverish activity and excitement.
In 1933 and 1934 Hays was the center of a movement to repeal prohi
bition in Kansas. The Kansas Anti-Prohibition Society was started here in
1933 together with the Kansas Repealist, published monthly until the de
feat of repeal at the general election of 1934.
The parents of Marion Talley, the singer, and those of Walt Disney,
the movie cartoonist, formerly resided near Hays.
ST. JOSEPH S CHURCH (Roman Catholic), NW. cor. i3th and Ash Sts.,
constructed of local limestone, is a composite of Gothic and Romanesque
styles, designed by Joseph Marshall of Topeka. The present church, dedi
cated in 1904, replaced an older church built in 1886. A large stained-
glass window portrays Joseph, patron saint of the church, and the Virgin
Mary.
ST. ANTHONY S HOSPITAL (open), 307 W. i3th St. adjacent to St.
Joseph s Church, is operated by the Sisters of Saint Agnes, and represents
an investment of $600,000. Three stories high, the structure is built of
local limestone, and brick with terra-cotta trim. It has accommodations for
no adult patients.
Hays City, founded in 1867 as an outgrowth of Fort Hays, frontier
military post, was a gathering place for scouts, cattlemen, soldiers, and
desperadoes during the early years of its existence. The town grew rap
idly, and by 1877 the population numbered almost 6,000.
3<H HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Fort Hays, directly south of the city, was abandoned in 1889 since the
Indian wars had ended. The 7,000 acres owned by the Federal Govern
ment became an idle military reservation. In 1900 the tract was given to
the State of Kansas for educational and scientific purposes. On yth St.,
adjacent to the south limits of the city, is the FORT HAYS STATE COL
LEGE (co-educational), in eight buildings on an 8o-acre campus. This is
one of three State teachers colleges in Kansas and has an annual enroll
ment of 500 students.
In the FRONTIER HISTORICAL PARK (open), immediately south of the
college campus, are the remnants of Fort Hays. The northeast corner of
the park is leased to the Hays Country Club Association for a golf course
(private). On what was once the fort s parade ground wagon tracks, made
by the heavy freighter wagons traveling from Fort Hays to Fort Wallace,
are still visible. The OLD BLOCKHOUSE (private), with its cemented but
plainly marked loopholes, is now a clubhouse.
Directly across the road from Frontier Park is the 3,6oo-acre FORT
HAYS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION (open), controlled by the
U. S. Department of Agriculture and Kansas State College. Here experi
ments in dry-land farming, soil-erosion prevention, livestock breeding,
and forestry are conducted; the findings, published periodically as bul
letins of the U. S. Department of Agriculture or of the experiment station,
are issued to farmers. Branch stations performing experimentation sup
plementary to that undertaken at Hays are at Colby (see Tour 2),
Tribune, and Garden City (see Tour 4).
In the residential district, at i8th and Fort Sts., is the SITE OF
BOOT HILL, early burial place. Estimates place the number of persons in
terred at 75, most of whom died "with their boots on." When basements
were dug for houses in this district, many skeletons were unearthed
some in coffins, some in rude boxes, and some with no encasement.
In the i86o s Buffalo Bill Cody is said to have killed 4,280 buffalo
near Fort Hays within 18 months. The meat was sold to railroad workers
camps and the commissary of the fort.
Left from Hays on US 183, bituminous-surfaced, is LA CROSSE, 25 m. (2,061
alt., 1,355 pop.)* seat of Rush County, a modern little city amidst oil and natural-
gas fields. La Crosse was founded by David and Denman Stubbs, pioneers from
Missouri, who, upon learning that the borders of Rush County had been changed
by a legislative act, saw that Rush Center would lose its designation as a county
seat since it was no longer at the center of the county. In 1876 the Stubbs brothers
surveyed two roads across the county, bisecting it from north to south and from
east to west. At the junction of these roads they platted La Crosse (Fr., the cross
ing) and made a bid for the county seat. After a prolonged dispute with Rush
Center, La Crosse became the permanent seat in 1888. A two-story frame building
on the west side of Main St., now occupied by a pharmacy, was the first courthouse
in Rush County. In the course of the, county seat quarrel this structure was
shunted back and forth between the rival towns four or five times.
ST. JOSEPH S COLLEGE AND MILITARY ACADEMY (Roman Catholic),
168.8 m., offers military training and courses comparable with those of
accredited high schools and junior colleges. The institution was opened in
1931 ; enrollment in 1938 was 256. The main building, a four-story brick
structure trimmed with white Carthage limestone, is of Collegiate Gothic
TOUR 3 365
. C. A. Smith of Salina was the architect. North of the main build
ing is a small frame structure which houses the agricultural department.
South of the main building, in a landscaped garden, is the SHRINE OF
THE LADY OF OUR LORD, built by students in 1937. The shrine, approx
imately 30 feet high, is surmounted with a statue of the Virgin.
US 40 enters grassy, rolling hill country west of Hays. A line of trees
marks the course of a creek.
ELLIS, 180.4 m. (2,119 alt., 1,957 pop.), established in 1867 on Big
Creek as a railroad tank and pumping station, was named for George
Ellis of the i2th Kansas Infantry. Ellis is a division point on the Union
Picific R.R. which maintains repair shops here. A cow town in the days
or the Texas cattle trade, Ellis was also a disembarkation point for many
colonists coming to western Kansas by railroad. Walter P. Chrysler,
rrotorcar magnate, received his public school education and learned the
rrachinist trade here.
In the yard of the municipal power plant is a lighted fountain with
rainbow-colored spray.
At 181.4 m. US 40 crosses a time zone boundary. West of this point
Mountain Standard Time is used; westbound travelers should set their
watches back one hour.
WAKEENEY, 199.7 ;;/. (2,456 alt., 1,408 pop.), seat of Trego
County, was named for Ward and Keene, a Chicago business firm that
bought land here for speculative purposes. The town was established in
1878. In 1879 the General Land Office was moved here from Hays,
bringing hundreds of people to file homestead claims. For years after its
founding fire guards were regularly plowed around Wakeeney to check
the prairie fires that ravaged the region. Thousands of buffalo, killed for
their hides, had been left on the prairies and in the i88o s their skele
tons proved a welcome source of livelihood to the new settlers. Fertilizer
plants paid $9.50 a ton for bones and often as many as one hundred tons
were piled near the Wakeeney railroad station awaiting shipment.
Wakeeney is a market center and a distribution point for produce and
farm machinery. The annual Trego County Free Fair is held here (last
week in Aug.).
West of Wakeeney great pastures and fields of wheat mark the begin
ning of the High Plains region of Kansas.
Beneath this level country lie rich deposits that have contributed geo
logic specimens, including fossilized birds, lizards, sharks, and bones of
prehistoric animals, to many collections throughout the United States. A
formation known as moss agate, an opaque stone sold in Colorado as
"Colorado agate," also underlies this region.
COLLYER, 212.3 nj. (2,578 alt., 243 pop.), a small trading point, was
founded in 1878 by a soldier and sailor colony from Chicago. It was
named for the president of the organization, the Reverend Robert Collyer.
A. B. Baker (1858-1930), for several years assistant director of the
National Zoological Park of the Smithsonian Institution, formerly resided
here.
At Collyer is the junction with a graveled road.
366 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Left on this road is the junction with a dirt road, 10 m.; R. on this to the
junction with another dirt road, 12 m.; L. on this to a pasture gate, 13 m.; R.
through the gate are CASTLE ROCKS, 13.5 m., chalk remnants that have been eroded
by rain, wind, and shifting soil into pillars and domes. These unusual formations,
in the Smoky Hill Valley near the Butterfield or Smoky Hill trail, were formerly
used by Indians as a lookout point and hiding place.
QUINTER, 219.7 m. (2,664 alt., 570 pop.), is the social and trading
center of thrifty Dunkards. Agriculture, stock raising and oil production
contribute equally to the prosperity of the town. A community chorus,
assisted by guest artists, presents a sacred oratorio each year at Christmas.
Right from Quinter on a graded road to the i24-acre SHERIDAN COUNTY
STATE LAKE, 7.3 m. (fishing, boating), formed by constructing a dam across the
Saline River. The park surrounding the lake covers more than 400 acres.
SHELTER BUILDINGS, being used (1939) temporarily by the CCC for barracks,
messhall, hospital, and recreation hall, are built of adobe brick, with roof, floors
and partitions of lumber and plaster. Adobe bricks can be made from any soil that
is not too sandy. After the earth has been revolved in a cement mixer until it is a
thick mud, rye or oats straw is added. This mixture is then placed in box-like
molds of wood, 16 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 4 inches deep. When partly
dried the bricks shrink and are removed by turning the mold upside down. In ex
tremely hot weather a little water is sprinkled on the bricks at this stage; other
wise they are left to season slowly for two or three weeks.
GRINNELL, 241.5 m. (2,939 alt., 303 pop.), named for a U. S.
Army officer stationed at Fort Hays, and settled by frugal German farmers,
is a shipping point for livestock and wheat. In 1872, according to a rail
road guide published at the time, Grinnell was "a section house, railway
tank, six dugouts, and two large turf houses for the purpose of drying
buffalo meat." The air is so dry in this region that meat stripped off in
layers can be dried and preserved indefinitely. Early settlers, who used this
method to preserve meat, called the product "jerked" meat because of the
manner of tearing it from the carcass.
Because OAKLEY, 253.3 m. (3,029 alt., 1,159 PP-)> a market center
and shipping point, is the largest town in Logan County and has modern
accommodations (municipal swimming pool and golf course), and ade
quate transportation facilities provided by the transcontinental highway
and the Union Pacific R.R., civic leaders made an effort in 1937 to have
it made the county seat instead of the more isolated Russell Springs.
Oakley offered voters of Logan County a new courthouse if they would
agree to the move, so an election was ordered. The village of Winona was
the third aspirant. The final tabulation, however, gave Oakley a plurality
of one vote, considerably less than the majority required by law.
Oakley is at the junction with US 83 (see Tour 8).
McALLASTER, 284.2 m. (3,156 alt., 25 pop.), is a trading and ship
ping point, with a general store and a filling station.
In 1870 an expedition from Yale University collected vertebrate fossils
along the north bank of the Smoky Hill River, west of this point. Among
the specimens found were the foot and other bones of a gigantic flying
reptile.
WALLACE, 296.9 m. (3,310 alt, 100 pop.), is the skeleton of a town
of 1,500 that throve here in the 1870*5. It wasted to its present proper-
TOUR 3 367
tions upon the cessation of frontier activities. Many of the plain frame
aid stone buildings in the town are remnants of that period.
The Union Pacific R. R. established a station at Wallace in 1870,
c loosing the site because it was the most accessible point on the railroad
f om Fort Wallace, a frontier military post established a mile and a half
southwest of the townsite in the middle i86o s. The railroad built a
roundhouse, a stone office building, and a row of houses for its workers. A
cluster of homes and shops soon arose about the railroad center.
Until 1878 when the Santa Fe Ry. and the Burlington R.R. were
built the Union Pacific line was the only route between the Platte River
in Nebraska and the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 2,000 miles. Thus,
Wallace, a shipping point for this vast area, became one of the most im-
f ortant towns in the Southwest.
The town s permanent population in the 1870*5 and early i88o s was
riade up of railroad workers and merchants for the most part; its floating
population consisted chiefly of cattlemen, quick-shooting cowboys, buffalo
1 unters, and gamblers. Fred Harvey established a railroad-eating house
here in the 1870 $, the first of what was to become a cross country chain
cf restaurants.
Frank Madigan, son of Thomas Madigan, pioneer Wallace merchant,
wrote: The buffalo hunters, bone pickers, and cowboys who made up a
considerable part of the population of Wallace were a care-free, fun-
Joving bunch of fellows with little respect for human life. Killings were
common and practically all went unpunished, as the friends of the killers
would testify that it was in self defense."
After several unsuccessful attempts to organize the county, Wallace be
came the temporary seat of Wallace County in 1887, but in 1889 Sharon
Springs became the permanent county seat. Fort Wallace had been aban
doned in 1881 and by the late i88o s the Union Pacific R. R. had ex
tended its line into Colorado and abandoned its roundhouse and shops at
Wallace. Settlers left the region in long caravans during the years of
drought in the early 1890 $. Wallace enjoyed a momentary revival in
907 upon the installation of a municipal water system, but it has de-
dined steadily for the last two decades.
Right one-half block from the center of town is the stone FOUNDATION
OF ROBIDOUX S STORE established in 1870 by Peter Robidoux, a French
Canadian. This is said to have been at one time the largest department
j.tore between Kansas City and Denver. Robidoux made a fortune during
the years when Wallace was prosperous.
As business declined in the late i88o s, Robidoux vowed that if ever
the day came when he failed to sell a single item in his establishment he
would lock its doors forever. That day came in 1895 and on the following
morning the doors of Peter Robidoux s store remained shut. They were
not opened again until after his death in October 1927. When the store
was closed its stock, valued at $20,000, included buggies, cowboy outfits,
harness, expensive cutlery, nails, bags of beans, flour, sugar, and many
varieties of canned foodstuffs.
In the COUNTY VAULT, a small stone building on US 40 (R) in the
368 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
heart of town, the county records were kept while Wallace was the county
seat.
Left from Wallace on a dirt road to the Union Pacific R.R. tracks, I m.; R. at
the tracks to the junction with another dirt road, 1.7 m.; L. on the second dirt road
to the SITE OF FORT WALLACE (R), 2.7 m., marked by a lone hackberry tree.
This last frontier post in Kansas was established in 1865 as Camp Pond Creek
to protect settlers and cattlemen from the Indians, and to advance Army occupation
of the West. In 1866 Camp Pond Creek was renamed Fort Wallace in honor of
Gen. W. H. L. Wallace, a Mexican War veteran who also served in the Indian
wars in Kansas. Fort Wallace was built as a four-company post, and could accom
modate only 500 men. Between 1866 and 1869 the troops stationed here were
detailed to escort stagecoaches, express wagon trains, Government officials, quarter
master trains, and railroad surveyors and laborers so that the regular garrison was
numerically small. Nevertheless social formalities were observed. Musicales and
skits were presented by residents of the post; on Sunday evenings the band gave
concerts; and officers and their wives had evenings "at home." The canteen bar and
nightly poker games provided further entertainment.
From Fort Wallace, in September 1868, went a company to the rescue of a little
band of soldiers, who, in the Battle of Beecher Island on the Arikaree, had held
out for 9 days against 1,000 Indians (see ST. FRANCIS, Tour 1). General Grant
visited Fort Wallace in 1868 and Generals Sheridan, Custer, and Bankhead were
stationed here at various times. The most important battle near the fort occurred in
1867, while General Custer was in command. About 125 Indians and 22 soldiers
were killed.
FORT WALLACE CEMETERY (L) is enclosed by a wall of local limestone. A
MONUMENT TO THE SOLDIERS, also of limestone, was erected here in 1867. Restora
tion of the monument and the wall was made possible by State appropriation in
1930. Ornamentation and inscription on the monument are in good condition.
Many of the soldier dead have been removed to other military cemeteries ; but about
60 remain mostly cholera victims.
SHARON SPRINGS, 305.7 m. (3,400 alt, 792 pop.), seat of Wallace
County, a well-shaded market town in treeless plains country, is on both
sides of the Smoky Hill River. Sharon Springs, founded in 1886, has a
wide trade territory. The surrounding region was ideal cattle country
until the era of mechanized wheat farming.
The BROCK HISTORICAL COLLECTION (open), on exhibition at the
Sharon Springs bank, includes portraits of the Peter Robidoux family, a
ledger from Robidoux s store with the accounts of many noted people who
traded there, and a good picture of Fort Wallace in its prime.
1. Right from Sharon Springs on State 27, improved, to the junction with a dirt
road, 4 m.; L. on this to the junction with another dirt road, 6 m.; R. to the top of
a hill and the OLD MAID S POOL, 8.5 m., a sunken area 125 yards in diameter, ap
parently with neither inlet nor outlet. Its unfailing freshwater supply is believed to
be from the underflow of the Smoky Hill River. The water content of the pool rises
and falls, depending somewhat on the season s precipitation. An Indian legend
attributes the sinking of the earth here to the Great Spirit, who disliked the out
come of a battle on this site. Two tribes had fought all day and at night the
seemingly victorious group had camped on the hill. During the night the hilltop
camp site disappeared leaving only the present depression, filled with water. It is
a place of mystery, and, according to local historians, Indians will not visit it.
2. Left on State 27 is TRIBUNE, 30 m. (3,543 alt., 436 pop.), a High Plains
wheat center. Greeley County, organized in 1888, was named for Horace Greeley;
and Tribune, which became its county seat, was given the name of Greeley s news
paper, the New York Tribune.
Tribune was settled in 1885 at which time it was called Cappaqua. In the fol-
TOUR 4 369
bwing year a number of neighboring towns sprang up, each hoping to be the
county seat. The leading aspirants were Horace, Hector, Greeley Center, and
Tribune. Hector and Tribune promoters merged their towns, abandoning the old
Hector townsite 4 miles northwest of Tribune, and thus won the county seat
election.
A Wallace County newspaper in 1886 reported the organization of Tribune in
the following news items: "Down at the little town of Tribune, erstwhile called
ty the poetical name of Cappaqua, where the lady settlers are largely in the pre
ponderance, they have a serenading club, organized for the purpose of welcoming
Msitors and those who come to stay. Every stranger who enters the town to stay
cvernight is entertained with beautiful songs by the club. The singing and the
presence of a bevy of young ladies are said to be attracting large numbers of voung
nen in that direction so the society will probably be evened up in Tribune before
bng."
Right from Tribune 1 m. on State 96, improved, is a STATE EXPERIMENT STA
TION (open), established on a small tract in 1912 by the Kansas State College of
Agriculture and Applied Science. In 1934 the tract was enlarged by the gift of 130
ncres from the Missouri Pacific R. R. Experiments are conducted largely for the
purpose of determining the types of crops adaptable to this section of the State, and
seed is produced for distribution to farmers. The institution also maintains herds
of beef and dairy cattle and studies diseases of livestock.
WESKAN, 318.1 m. (3,841 alt., 205 pop.), a wind-swept village with
*. name composed of the first three letters of the words, "Western
Kansas," is a trading center for wheat farmers on both sides of the State
Line.
At 322.2 m. US 40 crosses the Colorado Line 196 miles east of Denver,
Colo, (see COLO. Tour 7).
Tour
(Kansas City, Mo.) Baldwin City Council Grove Great Bend Gar
den City (La Junta, Colo.) ; US 50, US 5oN.
Missouri Line to Colorado Line, 485.6 m.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. roughly parallels route between Kansas City
rnd the Colorado Line; Missouri Pacific R.R. between Admire and Herington;
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. between Herington and Marion.
Paved roadbed for most of distance, a few short stretches of improved road. Open
nil year, except immediately after an occasional heavy snowstorm.
Usual accommodations.
This route parallels, and at times is identical with, the eastern part of
the old Santa Fe Trail over which wagon trains journeyed from Westport
Landing (now Kansas City, Mo.), to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Its course is
through farm country of eastern Kansas, the bluestem pastures of the Flint
370 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
Hills west of Osage City, the great wheat fields of central Kansas near
McPherson, the newly developed oil fields near Lyons, and the plains re
gions of the western part of the State.
Section a. MISSOURI LINE to JUNCTION WITH US 5oN AND
US 505, 493 m., US 50
Southwest on Ward Parkway from its junction with Mill Creek Parkway
in Kansas City, Mo., US 50 crosses the Missouri Line (see MO. TOUR
4), m., 0.5 miles west of the Country Club Plaza, and traverses fairly
level country, once an open prairie along which, in early days, wagons
started on their long trip to Santa Fe.
SHAWNEE CEMETERY, 0.8 m. (L), enclosed by an iron fence, is one of
the oldest white burial grounds in Kansas. It contains the marked GRAVE
OF THE REVEREND THOMAS JOHNSON, founder of Shawnee Methodist
Mission, and that of his wife.
At 1.1 m. is the junction with Mission Road, improved.
Right on this road is SHAWNEE METHODIST MISSION, 0.3 m., twice the territorial
capital of Kansas, which consists today of three aging brick structures standing in
the form of a triangle. Since their recent acquisition by the State, the buildings
have been partially restored and the 12 -acre grounds landscaped under the direction
of the Kansas State Historical Society. Midway between the two southern buildings
is a clear spring, which, used for centuries by the Indians, still flows even in years
of severest drought.
In 1838 the Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church directed
the Reverend Thomas Johnson, a young Virginian who had been for eight years a
missionary among the Shawnee, to build a manual training school for the children
of the tribes among whom the conference labored. Selecting a 2,24o-acre site three
miles west of old Westport, Mo., Johnson soon had two large buildings under way
and had planted 176 acres of corn and a 12 -acre apple orchard, the first in Kansas.
The mission school opened in October 1839, with 4 teachers instructing 72 children
from 10 tribes. Attendance soon exceeded 100, which included a number of children
of the Negro slaves owned by Johnson. Boys were instructed in farming and
trades; girls were taught to spin, weave, cook, sew, and keep house. When the
slavery question split the Methodist Church in 1845, Shawnee and all other
Kansas missions joined the Methodist Church, South.
The SCHOOLHOUSE proper, a large barrack-like structure erected in 1839 and
standing at the east angle of the present triangle of buildings, contained class and
study rooms, a chapel, teachers living quarters, and a boys dormitory. The chapel
has been converted into a MUSEUM (free), which contains the pulpit and Bible
used by Johnson, a green upholstered walnut chair presented to the missionary by
President Buchanan, the original land grant for the mission, and many documents
in Johnson s hand.
The walls of the school house show few signs of age. The original black walnut
doors are in place, but much of the building has been modernized and furnished
with little regard for the preservation of its original appearance, except in two
rooms on the second floor and in the long low room on the third floor that
served as a dormitory for Indian boys. These retain their rough-hewn floors and
crude fireplaces. Where the heavy plaster has fallen from the ceiling, hand-hewn
lathing appears. Large wooden pegs were used to fasten beams and rafters.
The HOME OF THE SUPERINTENDENT, in the south angle of the triangle, was
used as a girls dormitory and boarding house, having a spacious dining hall seat
ing more than 200 persons. Built in 1839, it has been kept in adequate repair for
living quarters.
To the north stands the former DORMITORY AND BOARDING SCHOOL, a two-story
structure erected in 1845, now empty, although it was long used as a barn. To this
TOUR 4 371
building on November 24, 1854, Andrew H. Reeder, first Territorial Governor,
moved his executive offices from Fort Leavenworth, where he had been inaugurated
on October 7 of that year. Later he selected Pawnee (see Tour 3) as the permanent
capital and convened the first Territorial legislature there early in 1855. Charging
Keeder with speculating in Pawnee real estate, the pro-slavery party unseated all
hut two of the Free Staters and hurriedly passed a law transferring the scat of
government back to Shawnee Mission.
The legislature took complete possession of the large schoolhouse building. The
House of Representatives sat in the chapel, the council in a room on the second
:k)or. Here the statutes of Missouri were adopted virtually in their entirety and
slavery was legalized in the Territory of Kansas by the "bogus statutes of 1855,"
as they were stigmatized by Free Staters, who refused to recognize them. On
August 8, 1855, the legislature established the capital at Lecompton, and several
.nonths later the executive offices were moved there.
The mission declined rapidly after this time. The Indians sold their lands and
noved away. Border troubles increased the school s difficulties. At the outbreak
of the Civil War, Thomas Johnson, although himself a slave owner, pledged his
illegiance to the Union cause, and his son, Alexander, became a soldier in the
L nion Army. The Johnsons abandoned the mission in 1864 and moved to their
farm near Westport, Mo., where Johnson was killed by a band of Quantrill s
guerrillas on the night of January 2, 1865.
The SHAWNEE MISSION RURAL HIGH SCHOOL, 3.6 m., a modern brick
Building, stands on the approximate SITE OF A QUAKER MISSION founded
for the Shawnee in 1834. A red granite boulder marks the site of the
three-story mission buildings. Nothing now remains of the school but a
CHAIN-AND-BUCKET WELL under a wooden canopy.
At 4.5 m. is the junction with US 69 (see Tour 13), which unites with
US 50 for a few blocks.
SHAWNEE, 7 m. (1,000 alt., 553 pop.), a suburban market center,
was once an Indian village, and became a bustling town on the Kansas
frontier during the early days of the Santa Fe Trail. Known as Gum
Springs, it was for a time the largest town in Kansas Territory, being the
seat of Johnson County from 1855 to 1858 when Olathe supplanted it.
Right from Shawnee on State 10, paved, to the junction with an improved road,
0.5 m.; L. here, 0.6 m., to the HOME OF FREDERICK CHOUTEAU (private).
Chouteau, a member of the family of French fur traders that founded St. Louis,
Mo., built the house for his Shawnee wife in 1830, shortly after the first settlement
of the Territory. The front portion of the house is the original frame structure built
by Chouteau; the stone addition in the rear is of a later date.
At 0.9 m. on State 10 is (L) the HOME OF CHARLES BLUEJACKET (private),
Shawnee chief and Methodist minister. Built in the early 1830*5, the house, a
shabby two-story frame structure, was occupied by Bluejacket until 1871 when he
migrated with his tribe to Indian Territory, where he died in 1897.
OLATHE, 19.7 ;;;. (1,023 alt., 3,656 pop.), the seat of Johnson
County, is a prosperous market town of pleasing residences and stately
elms. It was founded in 1857 on a green prairie knoll carpeted with blue
and scarlet verbena, the white lacy blooms of wild parsnip, pink-petaled
wild roses, and scores of other flowers. When Dr. John T. Barton, one of
the founders, decided to call the town by an Indian name meaning beau
tiful, he had difficulty in explaining to the Indians what he wanted. As
he pointed to the flowering meadow a Shawnee exclaimed, "O-la-the!"
and it was so named. (The Shawnee word for beautiful is wes-see.}
William Clarke Quantrill, notorious guerrilla leader, raided Olathe in
37 2 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
1862. Riding in at midnight, he captured revelers in the town s three sa
loons and routed sleepy citizens from their beds. A clergyman who did
not answer when called was killed. Men were lined up in the town square,
and a score of Union Army volunteers were taken prisoner. After loading
plunder on wagons and wrecking the newspaper office, the Quantrill band
marched the prisoners toward Missouri. They were finally released after
taking an oath that they would never bear arms against the Confederacy.
Olathe was the home of John P. St. John (1833-1916). It was during
ex-Governor St. John s first administration (1879-1881) that Kansas
adopted a prohibition amendment, largely through his efforts. He was the
Presidential candidate of the National Prohibition Party in 1884 but was
defeated by Grover Cleveland. Republicans blamed him for the defeat of
their candidate, James G. Elaine, by splitting the Republican vote, and
St. John became the center of a storm of abuse. So bitter was the feeling
against him that he was frequently hanged in effigy. In later years St. John
said, "No man living in America today has been the object of more bitter
attack and burning hatred than myself."
In the town square is the JOHNSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, a brick
and granite structure with bracketed cornice, two- story gable porch, hip
roof, and towering cupola. So popular is the courthouse with couples elop
ing from Missouri and eastern Kansas that the town has become a local
Gretna Green. Judge Bert Rogers, father of Charles (Buddy) Rogers, or
chestra leader and motion picture actor, presides (1938) in its "Cupid s
Parlor," which is decorated with more sentiment than restraint. Love birds
adorn the fringed lamp in the parlor and many photographs of Buddy
embellish the walls.
On the southeastern corner of town square is a Santa Fe Trail marker.
On US 50 near the northern edge of town (L), is the KANSAS SCHOOL
FOR THE DEAF (open on application), established in 1866 for the educa
tion of deaf children of elementary and high school age. Some 250 boys
and girls live and attend classes in its modern brick buildings set in a
shady landscaped park. The school stresses vocational training, teaching
trades, agriculture, and domestic science.
The HYER BOOT FACTORY (open on application), N. Chestnut St., a
remodeled three-story stone hotel built before the Civil War, had its hum
ble beginning in the iSyo s when Charles A. Hyer, a German shoemaker
teaching his craft at the Kansas School for the Deaf, opened a small shop
of his own. His first customer was a cowboy, for whom he designed a
handsome pair of soft leather boots. Many ranchers and cowboys came to
admire and buy his fine handiwork, as did cavalry officers and other fas
tidious horsemen. The factory now employs sixty men in fashioning fine
riding boots, including many that are elaborately ornamented to meet the
exacting demands of Hollywood cowboys.
OLATHE PARK, in the center of town, has a large municipal swimming
pool.
Left from Olathe on a graveled road to LAKE OLATHE, 2.5 m. (open), which
covers 57 acres and is well stocked with fish. Cabins around the lake are privately
owned.
TOUR 4 373
Just east of the concrete bridge on which US 50 crosses Cedar Creek, is
a Santa Fe and Oregon Trail marker, 22.5 m., one of a series of 98
boulders and monuments that have been placed throughout Kansas on
tiese historic routes. On the west bank of the creek is an old stone build
ing that housed the workers who built the first railroad through this re
gion in 1871.
Before GARDNER, 28.2 m. (1,065 alt., 493 pop.), a rural trading
center, developed there was a sign post here reading, "Road to Oregon"
(R) and "Road to Santa Fe" (L). Ruts made by wagons traveling the
Oregon Trail are visible a short distance north of town. Founded in 1857
by Free Staters and named for Governor O. B. Gardner of Massachusetts,
tie town cast only three of its 103 votes for the pro-slavery Lecompton
constitution. One of the first Free State conventions in Kansas was held
here in 1858.
Right from Gardner on a graveled road to the 34O-acre JOHNSON COUNTY
STATE PARK, 3 m. (fishing), well landscaped with numerous trees and contain-
i ig a fine lake.
EDGERTON, 33.6 m. (966 alt., 278 pop.), a tidy hamlet, succeeds
two vanished towns, McCamish and Lanesfield. The former was laid out
about three miles to the northeast in 1857; Lanesfield, named for James
H. Lane, fiery orator and leader of the Kansas antislavery Democrats, was
later founded about a half mile west of McCamish. When the Santa Fe
Ry. skipped both towns, in building through the region in 1870, the in
habitants of the two settlements moved nearer the railroad and called their
new town Edgerton, for the chief engineer of the railroad. Only a coun
try schoolhouse now marks the site of Lanesfield ; McCamish has vanished
completely.
BALDWIN CITY, 44.6 m. (849 alt., 1,127 P<>P-)> * quiet college
town, is dominated by the yellow limestone buildings of BAKER UNIVER
SITY, a co-educational Methodist school with an enrollment of 350. Opened
in 1858, it is the oldest four-year college in Kansas. One of its earliest
recorded donations is a $100 check received from President Abraham Lin
coln in February 1864. While the record does not indicate the circum
stances, Thomas A. Evans, alumni secretary of the university, says that it
was given to the Baker financial agent who visited the President at Wash
ington.
OLD CASTLE HALL, in which the college s first classes were held, is pre
served on the campus as a monument. In the vault of the university
LIBRARY (open during school hours), is the noteworthy QUAYLE COL
LECTION OF BIBLES, assembled by Bishop William Quayle, once president
of the institution. The collection contains Bibles that belonged to Robert
Southey, Robert Browning, and Robert Louis Stevenson; synagogue rolls;
early English versions of the Scriptures and rare Arabic translations on
vellum.
In 1874 Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, a country doctor who had studied
i.nd practiced medicine for many years, laid before the officials of Baker
University a new system of treating human ailments without drugs, which
374 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
he called osteopathy. His ideas met with such a cold reception that Doctor
Still left Kansas and took up practice in Missouri, where he established
the first school of osteopathy at Kirksville in 1892.
In Territorial days Baldwin was the scene of a bitter fight between pro-
slavery Missourians and Free State Kansans. The Missourians attacked
under the leadership of a Congressional Representative; the Free Staters
were concentrated at Baldwin under various leaders. The fight came to a
halt when Governor Shannon ordered United States troops under Colonel
Sumner to send the belligerents home and release all prisoners. On their
way back to Missouri pro-slavery men plundered Osawatomie (see
Tour 12B).
At 49.5 m. is the junction with US 59 (see Tour 12), and with US 508
(see Tour 4 A).
Section b. JUNCTION WITH US 50, US 508, AND US 59 to
GARDEN CITY, 364.3 m., US
West of the junction with US 59, m., US 5oN traverses a fine up
land farming country, the soft-coal mining region near Scranton, the
grassy Flint Hills dotted with red cattle, the grimy oil fields about Lyons,
and the highly developed area of irrigated farm lands near Larned and
Garden City.
OVERBROOK, 16 m. (1,070 alt., 460 pop.), is the center of a district
once important for the mining of bituminous coal, but now devoted to
diversified farming and cattle raising.
At 23.1 m. is the junction with US 75 (see Tour 11).
West of the junction coal mines are visible on both sides of the high
way. Most of the mines are small and owned by individuals who truck
their coal to Topeka to be sold by the load.
SCRANTON, 26.5 m. (1,100 alt., 538 pop.), established in the early
i87o s as a coal-mining camp, is now a farmers market town.
BURLINGAME, 33.4 m. (1,045 alt., 1,127 pop.), the oldest settle
ment in Osage County, is a rambling town with broad shady streets and
fairly comfortable homes. Old limestone buildings with long deep
windows and strong straight walls, erected in the 1870 $ and i88o s, line
its main street, once part of the Santa Fe Trail. Founded in 1855 as Coun
cil City, Burlingame was the county seat and largest town of Osage
County, which then included much of Shawnee, Wabaunsee, Lyon, and
Coffey Counties, until the dwindling of traffic along the trail brought a
decline and the transfer of the county seat to Lyndon. Today it is a rural
trade center and shipping point.
At 40.2 m. is a junction with State 31.
Left on this road is OSAGE CITY, 0.2 m. (1,084 alt., 2,402 pop.), market cen
ter of a coal-mining and farming area, has three small community parks, well
shaded and well watered (camping allowed).
A mining disaster occurred here in the winter of 1874. Fire broke out in a shaft
in which twelve men were working. Their only means of escape was through the
mouth of the tunnel, which was filled with clouds of smoke and sheets of flame.
The State had not yet passed laws obligating mine owners to provide escape shafts
BUILDING TEMPORARY SILO OF SNOW FENCE AND TAR PAPER
37^ HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
for their workers. William Marks, a fearless miner, carried out the unconscious men
one at a time, but only four survived.
BUSHONG, 64.1 m. (1,337 alt, *93 PP-) is a quiet hamlet sur
rounded by large cattle ranches.
The boyhood HOME OF GEN. J. G. HARBORD (private), 67.5 m. (L),
chief of staff of the expeditionary forces under General Pershing during
the World War, was moved here early in 1937 from its original site
northwest of Bushong. The one-and-one-half story structure has been re
modeled considerably since it was occupied by the Harbord family.
COUNCIL GROVE, 77.2 m. (1,234 alt., 2 >99 8 PP-)> incorporated
by a special act of the Territorial legislature in 1858, lies on the edge of
the Flint Hills in the fertile Neosho River valley, which is devoted to
cattle raising and diversified farming. The town has long been noted for
the size and beauty of its oaks, elms, and maples, many of which were
damaged during the drought of the early 1930 $.
Council Grove grew up about an old campground in the great oak
grove that once stood near a shallow ford across the Neosho River. Long
known to the Indians, the ford was also used, so legend has it, by Coro-
nado and his Spaniards in 1541 when they were searching for Quivira
(see HISTORY). Almost three centuries later, on August 10, 1825, three
federal commissioners from Washington met here with chiefs of the
Kansa, and of the Great and Little Osage, who received $500 for signing
a treaty allowing the whites to survey and mark a trail from the Missouri
River to Santa Fe.
In 1826 Josiah Gregg of Independence, Mo., led the first large caravan
across the ford at Council Grove. A year later, it is said, Kit Carson
stopped to rest in the grove and carved his name on one of the elms.
Travel along the Santa Fe Trail increased rapidly, and by the early 1840*5
the campground was a busy place. Traders bound for Santa Fe, emigrants,
and gold hunters met here and Council Grove soon became the most im
portant station in the 7OO-mile stretch between Westport and Santa Fe.
After the outbreak of war with Mexico in 1846 Col. Alexander W. Doni-
phan and his Missouri volunteers camped in the grove for several days.
Traffic on the Santa Fe Trail gradually declined and practically ceased
in 1866 with the building of the Kansas Pacific 50 miles to the north. In
1871 the town became the permanent seat of Morris County, and, realiz
ing that its roseate commercial dreams were over, settled down to slow but
steady growth as an agricultural center.
The Kansa, who had been placed on a diminished reservation near the
townsite in 1847, were moved to Indian Territory in 1873, severing the
last link with the exciting frontier days. When the railroad came in 1883,
Council Grove became a shipping point for livestock. In 1903 the Neosho
River went on a rampage and the town was completely inundated. Prop
erty damage was estimated at $200,000 and many sections of the town
had to be rebuilt.
The MADONNA OF THE TRAIL MONUMENT, NE. corner Union and
Main Sts., dedicated to the pioneer women of the plains, was awarded to
TOUR 4 377
Council Grove as having the most interesting history of any town in the
.State. The monument represents a pioneer woman holding an old-fash
ioned musket in one arm and a baby in the other, as a small boy clings to
her skirts.
Under COUNCIL OAK, 210 E. Main St., the treaty of August 10, 1825,
was signed. At the suggestion of George H. Sibley, one of the Federal
commissioners, "Big John" Walker, a scout, carved the name Council
Grove on the wide-spreading oak under which the council was held. This
old but well-preserved tree measures more than ten feet in circumference.
On August 10, 1907, the State and the D. A. R. erected a monument op
posite the old tree and in the cement foundation sealed a metal box con
taining old and contemporary historical documents.
The HAYS TAVERN, 112 N. Main St., was built in 1847 by Seth M.
Hays, Council Grove s first white settler, who established a trading post
near the confluence of Elm Creek and the Neosho River in 1847, a few
months after the Kansa had been placed on their reservation here. Al
though somewhat modernized, this frame structure which served suc
cessively as a home, saloon, supply house, courthouse, and hotel retains
the exterior appearance of its early days when it was the scene of the set
tlement s most important social activities.
The KAW (KANSA) MISSION (private), SE. corner Huffaker and Mis
sion Sts., a two-story local-stone building of Colonial design, was opened
in 1849 ty Thomas S. Huffaker. He was sent by the Methodist Episcopal
Church to teach the Indians, who, however, were so unresponsive that the
mission was shortly closed and remained so till 1854, when it was re
opened as the first school for white children in Kansas. In spite of his
inability to educate the Indians, Huffaker gained their confidence and re
spect and did much to maintain friendly relations between the Kansa and
the increasing number of settlers, who were in constant fear of an attack
by the reservation braves and the roving bands of Cheyenne. They fright
ened housewives by stalking into their kitchens and demanding food, and
annoyed stockmen with their constant depredations on their herds.
In the summer of 1859, Chief Ah-Le-Goh-Wah-Ho enraged by Seth
Hays demand for the return of some horses stolen from a Mexican trader,
rode into town one morning with a Kansa war party of 100 braves. When
Charles Gilke and a man named Parks had been wounded, one by a bullet,
the other by an arrow, Huffaker ran out into the street and commanded
the Indians to leave. After a brief parley the war party turned about and
rode out of town, but halted on a hill about a mile away, where they were
re-enforced by 400 warriors. Responding to the pleas of the terrified
townspeople, Huffaker again approached the Indians, demanding that
they return to their reservation.
The chief was persuaded to call off the attack and to surrender the two
braves who had shot Gilke and Parks. One of the offenders tried to stir
up a mutiny but was seized and bound by the Indians. Both prisoners
were taken to Council Grove where they were summarily tried and
hanged. The bodies were returned to the tribe in a wagon driven by a
37 8 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
man named Rocheford. After receiving their dead in stoical silence, the
Kansa began their funeral chant, which so frightened Rocheford s oxen
that they ran away.
Charles Curtis, Vice President of the United States (1929-33), was a
member of the tribe, lived on the Kansa reservation as a boy, and is said
to have attended the mission school.
The LAST CHANCE STORE, NE. corner of Main and Chautauqua Sts., a
one-story local- stone building erected in 1857, was f r several years a
post office, then became a Government trading post, and is now occupied
by the Morris County National Farm Loan Association. It was so named
because it was the last place where supplies could be obtained on the trail
between Council Grove and Santa Fe.
HERMIT S CAVE, on Belfry St. between Columbia and Hays Sts., be
came the refuge of a mysterious and destitute stranger who arrived in
1862. To improve his shelter, he built up a wall of rocks to meet the over
hanging ledge at the top of the cliff, and here, high on the eastern face of
the great bluff overlooking the town, he lived with only his dog for com
pany. His name was Matteo Boccalini, he said, and he was a native of
Capri. He told of having gone to Rome at the age of eighteen to be or
dained for the priesthood, of having become secretary to the Pope, but of
later being unfrocked because of a love affair with a young girl. Having
incurred the enmity of the Jesuits, he wandered for years, migrated to
America, and finally reached the Kansa reservation, from whence he was
expelled as "bad medicine."
He lived in fear of being followed, and one day hurried away with a
wagon train bound for the Southwest, after having seen a man whom he
thought he recognized among some travelers. Two years later Council
Grove learned that a priest had been found dead, with a dagger through
his heart, in a cave house in the mountains of New Mexico. On the walls
of the cave he had carved his name, a cross, and the words "J esu Maria"
and "Capri," exactly as they appeared on the walls of Hermit s Cave here.
In the BELFRY TOWER, corner of Columbia and Belfry Sts., near Her
mit s Cave, is a bell originally purchased by the Plymouth Congregational
Church at Lawrence in 1863. After the Lawrence church had rejected it
because it was cracked, Council Grove, needing a church and school bell
as well as an alarm to warn settlers of Indian raids or prairie fires, bought
it for $9 and hauled it overland by ox team. After serving almost 40 years
it finally fell from its tower and was placed in this monument, which was
erected with contributions from school children and was dedicated on
September 19, 1901, to President William McKinley, who was buried on
that day.
The POST OFFICE OAK, on E. Main St. between Union and Liberty
Sts., was an unofficial post office during the days of heavy travel on the
Santa Fe Trail. For a time this was the only place for mail exchange be
tween Junction City and Santa Fe. A stone cache held the messages of
passing caravans.
CUSTER S ELM, six blocks south of Main St. on Neosho St., a giant
tree 100 feet in height and 16 feet in circumference, is said to have shel-
TOUR 4 379
teied the camp of Lieutenant Colonel Custer in 1867. Custer was leading
an expedition against hostile Indians in western Kansas when he passed
through Council Grove.
At 90.2 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road to the SITE OF DIAMOND SPRINGS, 4 m., once a green oasis and
a favorite stopover for travelers on the long dusty Santa Fe Trail. Frontiersmen
enclosed the land about the springs, which are now dry, with a corral of local
stone to protect themselves and their stock from the Indians. Stops were made here
cither at night or during the heat of the day, for wagon trains traveled only in the
cool of early morning or late afternoon.
HERINGTON, 102.6 m. (1,324 alt., 4,519 pop.) (see Tour 10), is at
the junction with US 77 (see Tour 10). Between this point and MARION,
128 m. (1,310 alt., 1,959 pop.) (see Tour 10), US 77 and US 5oN are
one route (see Tour 10).
HILLSBORO, 139.2 m. (1,426 alt., 1,458 pop.), at the junction of the
north and south branches of the Cottonwood River, is the center of a large
Mennonite community that extends into neighboring counties.
TABOR COLLEGE, a co-educational Mennonite institution founded in
1908, is on a landscaped square near the eastern edge of the town. The
two college buildings, an administration building and a dormitory, are of
modern design and are constructed of brick and terra cotta. Tabor offers a
two-year course in liberal arts, science, and religion and has an enrollment
(1938) of approximately 100.
The ancestors of these Mennonites were largely Swiss and Germans
who had migrated to Russia in the eighteenth century when Catherine the
Great promised them religious freedom, exemption from military service,
and freedom from taxation for a period of thirty years. Catherine s suc
cessors revoked these privileges, however, and members of the sect mi
grated to America in the early 1870*5. Those who settled in central Kan
sas have made it one of the most prosperous farming regions in the State.
Its great golden wheat fields had their origin in the tiny patches planted
by the first Mennonite settlers who had grown Turkey Red wheat suc
cessfully on the steppes of southern Russia and who brought bags of seed
with them. Kansas farmers had previously grown only soft spring wheat,
but by the early i88o s they were buying large quantities of Turkey Red
wheat from their Mennonite neighbors and importing hundreds of bush
els of seed from Russia. By the late 1890*5 this rust-resistant hard winter
wheat had supplanted soft spring wheat almost completely (see AGRI
CULTURE).
Until recent years the Mennonites clung tenaciously to their religion
and Old World customs, characterized by great simplicity in their home
life, dress, entertainment, and religious services. Many lived for years in
America without becoming naturalized citizens because their religion did
not sanction the taking of oaths. Even today members often refuse to vote,
except in school elections, or take part in governmental affairs.
Hillsboro has a Mennonite publishing plant that prints religious books
and weekly newspapers in German, which many people here speak as flu
ently as they do English.
380 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
West of Hillsboro US 5oN is bordered by fields of alfalfa, wheat, and
corn.
LEHIGH, 145.4 m. (1,522 alt., 315 pop.), is a cluster of small build
ings and derricks near the center of a large oil field.
McPHERSON, 165.5 m. (1,480 alt., 6,147 pop.), seat of McPherson
County, was named for Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, Commander of
the Army of the Tennessee, whose equestrian statue stands in the court
house park. A shipping and refining point for the central Kansas oil
fields, McPherson has expanded rapidly in recent years, having been rela
tively untouched by the depression.
McPherson and the surrounding farm lands were settled by Swedes
who were followed by Germans, Bohemians, and French Canadians. The
thrifty descendants of these pioneers own their own farms for the most
part and many draw royalties from the oil produced on their lands.
McPherson has two Carnegie libraries ; one was donated to the city, the
other to MCPHERSON COLLEGE (Dunkard), whose eight brick and lime
stone buildings stand on a landscaped campus at the eastern edge of town.
A co-educational institution, it has an enrollment of 400. The Dunkards,
frequently called Dunkers or Tunkers, are members of the Church of the
Brethren, a sect of Baptists that in 1708 grew out of the Pietist movement
in Germany. Although most of the out-of-town students belong to the
sect, the college no longer stresses the Dunkards opposition to oaths, al
cohol, tobacco, and warfare.
Dr. J. Willard Hershey, a professor of chemistry at McPherson College,
has produced the largest synthetic diamonds manufactured in the United
States. Sir Hubert Wilkins used Hershey s mixture of helium and oxygen
gases on his submarine North Pole expedition in 1931.
CENTRAL COLLEGE AND ACADEMY (Free Methodist), at the southern
edge, of the town, is a secondary school and junior college with an enroll
ment of approximately 100. Founded in 1914, the institution has a i5-acre
campus with three modern, well-equipped buildings, in addition to four
residences for faculty members and students nearby. Students must con
form to Free Methodist practices, which forbid smoking, dancing, college
fraternities, attendance at motion picture theaters, and the wearing of
jewelry. Visiting between the sexes is limited to supervised social inter
views.
The gymnasium of the new MCPHERSON CITY AUDITORIUM was used
by the local Globe Refinery basketball team, which won the national ama
teur championship in 1936 and participated in the Olympic games in
Germany.
McPherson is at the junction with US 81 (see Tour 9).
West of McPherson sunflowers grow rank from June until frost. Al
though designated the official State flower in 1903, the sunflower, curi
ously enough, is not native to Kansas. Its seeds came from the Southwest,
in mud and dirt clinging to the broad wheels of freight wagons plying
the Santa Fe Trail in early days. The small variety that grows wild along
the roadside and in uncultivated fields is regarded as a pest, but varieties
producing large seeds are cultivated for chicken feed.
TOUR 4 381
At 192.1 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Right on this road to LITTLE RIVER, 1 m. (1,504 alt., 618 pop.), the trade
center of a rich wheat-raising area, named for the Little Arkansas River which flows
a short distance north of the town.
LYONS, 199.2 m. (1,696 alt., 2,939 pop.), a small city of substantial
houses and shady lawns grouped about the Rice County Courthouse, is
dependent on salt and wheat, the principal crop of the surrounding coun
tryside.
In the middle 1 870*5, when the towns of Atlanta and Peace (Sterling)
were rivals for the county seat designation, it was decided at a hotly con
tested election to place the seat in the exact center of the county, more
than a mile north and east of Atlanta. A new town was laid out there in
1876 and named for Truman J. Lyons, on whose property it was founded.
Four years later Lyons was incorporated as a second-class city.
In 1890 the shaft of the first salt mine was sunk in the vicinity. The
mines of the two salt companies operating here have 16 miles of air-
conditioned tunnels. The highly crystalline salt is mined without the use
of timbering. Columns of salt support the roofs of the mines which re
semble mammoth vaulted caverns. A small electric railway hauls the blocks
of salt to an elevator, which lifts them to the surface. Salt is also extracted
from wells drilled in the vicinity. After fresh water has been forced into
them, the brine is pumped out and evaporated in vats, leaving salt crystals.
Lyons experienced a boom in the middle 1920*5 with the development
of new oil fields nearby. In 1936 Rice County led Kansas in oil produc
tion, having an output of 11,427,072 barrels, almost 20 per cent of the
State s total.
In the COURTHOUSE a large collection of relics, believed to be of the
Quivira expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, includes Spanish
lances, fragments of chain mail, and a Toledo sword blade, all plowed up
on a farm near the old Cow Creek crossing on the Santa Fe Trail.
A local historian believes that Coronado s search for the fabulous Seven
Cities of Cibola ended here (see HISTORY).
Left from Lyons on State 14, paved, to STERLING, 10 m. (1,657 alt., 1,868
pop.), a town with a wide main street and modern schools, churches, and business
houses. Founded in 1872 as Peace, it was incorporated under its present name in
1876.
At the north end of Main Street is (R) STERLING COLLEGE (200 enrollment), a
United Presbyterian institution established in 1886 as Cooper College. The origin.il
building, Cooper Hall, is a gaunt limestone structure near the north campus limits.
Three newer buildings of brick and limestone serve as girls dormitory, gymnasium,
and school of music. Sterling is co-educational and offers degrees in liberal arts,
fine arts, and science.
On the banks of Cow Creek, 207.5 m., are (L) ruts made by wagons
on the Santa Fe Trail. Nearby is a Santa Fe Trail marker on one of the
Plains Indians favorite spots for ambushing freighters.
ELLINWOOD, 221.2 m. (1,782 alt., 1,115 PP-)> a clean an ^ svm -
metrical town surrounded by a forest of oil derricks, was founded as a
post office in 1871, just before the last of the Plains Indians were put on
382 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
reservations. A railroad, built through the town the following year, at
tracted new settlers and Ellinwood became a shipping and trading point.
Since 1930, when development began in Barton and Rice Counties,
Ellinwood has been the center of one of the State s largest and most
productive oil fields. On the outskirts of the town scores of newly painted
cottages have been erected by the oil companies for their workers, who
have their own schools and community organizations. Although rather
monotonous in appearance, these mushroom settlements are an improve
ment on the rows of unpainted shacks and dingy tents that characterized
the booming oil towns of the past generation.
Right from Ellinwood on a graveled road to the ROBL BIRD-BANDING STATION
(open on application), 2.5 m., a private refuge conducted by Frank Robl, district
game warden and a deputy Federal game protector. No hunting is permitted on
the 500 acres surrounding the i6-acre refuge. Here migratory birds are marked
with leg bands so that their flights back and forth across the country can be studied.
More than 15,000 birds have been banded by Robl since he began his work here in
1928. Some 400 geese, 1,000 ducks, and several flocks of sandhill cranes regularly
stop here on their flights south, usually in October; they return north in March.
Although there is no winter shelter, mallard ducks and Canadian geese sometimes
stay all year. They nest about the reedy pond in summer and become so tame that
Robl and his assistants can handle them. During the severe winters the birds
consume as much as 300 bushels of wheat and oats, in addition to what they them
selves can obtain.
Bordering a horseshoe bend in Walnut Creek, 226.5 m., is (R) the
FORT ZARAH STATE PARK (outdoor stoves, excellent campground),
a three-acre tract marked with a Civil War cannon. In early days OLD
WALNUT CROSSING (L), just off the highway, was a favorite stopping
place for traders, explorers, and plainsmen.
Fort Zarah, a link in the chain of frontier forts that guarded the Santa
Fe Trail, was established by Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, September 6, 1864,
and named for the general s son, Maj. H. Zarah Curtis, who was killed
in the Baxter Springs Massacre (see Tour 7 ). It had one building, two
stories high, constructed of sandstone from a nearby bluff.
The 3,700-acre Fort Zarah Military Reservation was established by
order of President Andrew Johnson, September 30, 1868. The lessening
of Indian depredations and the decline of traffic along the trail soon re
moved the necessity for a post at this point, so the fort was dismantled
in December 1869. An act passed by Congress in 1871 provided for the
resurvey and sale of the reservation lands.
According to one historian, the abandoned fort became "a general ren
dezvous for bats and marauders," until piece by piece, the stone walls of
the building were carried away by settlers to be used in the construction
of dwellings. The last trace of the old fort disappeared before the end of
the century.
GREAT BEND, 231.4 m. (1,843 alt., 5,548 pop.), named from its
position on the sweeping curve made by the Arkansas River as it loops
through central Kansas, is a shipping, wheat, and oil center. Settled in
1871, two years after the abandonment of old Fort Zarah, the town grew
rapidly after the railroad reached it in 1872. The first building on the
TOUR 4 383
townsite, the Southern Hotel, was erected by the town company. Tom
Stone, the landlord, was a burly man with huge "handle-bar" mustaches.
He loved to wear vermilion-colored shirts and an old military sash from
which protruded the handles of two big revolvers. In spite of his terrify
ing appearance Stone was a pleasant fellow and a popular host.
In 1874-75 Great Bend was a railhead on the Chisholm Cattle Trail
and its crowded, boisterous saloons and dance halN i^i\c it a reputation
as a "hot spot" among cowmen and freighters. With the cattle trade came
the usual entourage of gamblers, gunmen, and other undesirable charac
ters. Although Great Bend mere hauls enjoyed a brisk business during the
cow-town era, many of the townspeople lived in terror of the rough ele
ment and welcomed the passage of a State law in 1876 which established
a deadline for Texas cattle thirty miles west of the town.
One of Great Bend s first city marshals, H. B. "Ham" Bell, now (1938)
a resident of Dodge City, came to Great Bend from Maryland in 1875.
The Kansas Pacific brought him to Ellsworth but there was no railroad or
stageline operating between that town and Great Bend; so he asked a
local liveryman what he would charge to drive him to his destination.
"It ll cost you a dollar a mile and it s forty-five miles," replied the driver.
When Bell protested, the man pointed to a large lake along the western
horizon and explained that the route was extremely hazardous because it
passed through the shallow waters of this lake. The driver demanded pay
ment in advance and Bell reluctantly produced the $45. "The lake, how
ever, proved to be a mirage," Bell relates, "and I learned too late that I
was figuratively as well as literally being taken for a ride. My driver re
fused to make a settlement and seemed to regard the chicanery as a legiti
mate trick to play on an unsuspecting tenderfoot."
For many years the town s chief industry was flour milling, but its
streets and hotel lobbies are crowded now (1938) with men in khaki
shirts, boots, and stained riding breeches, all talking the jargon of the oil
fields. With oil wells to the north, south, and east, a boom spirit has
gripped the town. Great stacks of heavy timbers for rigging, of fabricated
steel for derricks, of tubing, casing, and pipe are piled high in supply
yards. During 1937 many new business establishments were opened and
hundreds of new houses were built here. In spite of all this bustle and
feverish growth the town has retained a neat and orderly appearance.
BARTON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, a four-story structure of Bedford
limestone, stands in the center of the city in a landscaped square, which
also contains the MOSES MEMORIAL BAND SHELL, donated in 1926 by
descendants of Clayton L. Moses, Great Bend pioneer, and a bronze statue
of a Union soldier, erected as a G. A. R. memorial in 1915.
Right from Great Bend on State 8, a paved road, to 4O-acre LAKE BARTON
{gas, water, ovens for picnickers; fishing, no hunting), 7 m., which supplies the
railroad shops at Hoisington with water. The Barton County Club has leased 120
acres adjoining the lake (dance pavilion, shelter house, boathouse; $1 a day fee
charged to non-members).
DUNDEE, 235.3 in. (1,899 aIt -> 3 2 pop.). was settled in the 1870*5
by Mennonites who patterned the settlement after their villages in Eu-
384 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
rope. Colonists lived together in the village and pooled the surrounding
land in one big farm. The large number of acres necessary to support a
family in this region made the scheme impracticable, however, and the
settlers soon took up individual farms. Their descendants still attend the
old Mennonite church in Dundee.
PAWNEE ROCK, 245.6 m. (1,941 alt., 399 pop.), is at the junction
with an improved road.
Right from Pawnee Rock on this road to PAWNEE ROCK STATE PARK,
0.5 m. (shelter house, picnic grounds), formerly a rendezvous for Plains Indians
and the scene of many savage battles in the early days. The Santa Fe Trail passed
near its base and some historians believe that Coronado s expedition (1541) came
to this place with Indian guides who used the hill as a landmark. The rock s name,
according to most historians, refers to the fact that the Pawnee often met here in
council. But in his book The Old Santa Fe Trail Henry Inman declares that it was
so named because of a battle fought here between the Pawnee and the whites, in
which Kit Karson participated.
From the rock is a sweeping view of the Arkansas, Ash, and Walnut Rivers, and
of the city of Larned to the southwest. A mass of Dakota sandstone, the rock
originally stood almost 100 feet high, but some 18 feet of stone was stripped from
the top by early settlers, who used it to build houses, and by the Santa Fe Railway
in laying its roadbed along the route of the old trail in the valley.
The State acquired the five acres comprising the present park in 1908, and in
1912 erected the PAWNEE ROCK MONUMENT, a 30-foot shaft of Barre granite, de
signed by Silverstro Caro, an Italian sculptor of Topeka.
LARNED, 254.1 m. (2,023 alt., 3,532 pop.), a trading center and seat
of Pawnee County, lies at the confluence of Pawnee Creek and the Arkan
sas River. The business section has a modern aspect with store fronts of
brick, stucco, stone, and tile.
The settlement s first building was a frame structure moved from Fort
Larned, floated across Pawnee Creek, and rented as a saloon by Henry
Booth, an Englishman. Upon the arrival of the railroad later that year, a
one-story wooden hotel was erected near the depot. Although it had un-
plastered rough-sawed walls, canvas ceilings, and canvas partitions be
tween the rooms, it was regarded in its day as spacious and luxurious. In
1874 the first public school was set up in a recently vacated building
across whose two front windows ran the nine-inch red and yellow letters
S-A-L-O-O-N. Pupils sat on beer kegs before the bar which served the
teacher as a desk.
In a shady landscaped park north of the business district stands the
PAWNEE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, a modern brick building with Ionic pil
lars and a long double flight of stone stairs rising to the portico floor. A
collection of early relics is on exhibit in the lower corridor. In the Junior
High School is the HEIMSOTH PALEONTOLOGY COLLECTION, which in
cludes the i5-foot tail of a mosasaurid, a giant mail-clad prehistoric liz
ard; the bones of the tail are complete, numbering no.
At the south end of Main Street, between Pawnee Creek and the Ar
kansas River, on a site formerly known as Island Park, is an old INDIAN
BATTLEGROUND, where a bloody conflict between the Pawnee and invad
ing Cheyenne under Chief Black Kettle was witnessed by Colonel Henry
Inman in 1860 while on his way to Fort Larned. According to Inman, the
TOUR 4 385
Pawnee chief had him tell the enemy that the Pawnee were waiting for
them on the willow-covered island between the two streams. As the last
of the Pawnee reached the island and disappeared behind the willows, 200
Cheyenne warriors led by Yellow Buffalo advanced, chanting their war
song, and plunged into the stream with a shout of defiance, holding their
rifles and powder bags above their heads. The Pawnee allowed the Chey
enne to approach within 10 feet before half of them blazed away with
their first volley in the very face of the foe. As soon as they saw how many
men had been hit the other half followed with the second volley. Then
each Pawnee, who, in addition to rifle and bow and arrows, carried two
pistols, kept up a steady fire.
Leaving many dead and wounded, the Cheyenne withdrew, only to re
new the attack in greater force under Black Kettle, but again they were
repulsed with great slaughter, losing fifty men. The Pawnee reported one
dead and two wounded, and at sunset remained masters of the field. "But
while a victory for the Pawnee, the battle settled nothing," wrote Inman,
"for Black Kettle remained and his Cheyennes continued to hunt on the
Pawnee grounds."
Left from Larned on State 45, improved, to the junction with an improved road,
0.2 m.; R. here to the HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, 3.4 m. (open on application),
consisting of brick cottages and residences, modern farm buildings, towering silos,
and a large dairy barn, situated on 1,440 acres of farm land in green Pawnee Creek
valley.
JENKINS HILL, west of the cottages, figured prominently in the early history of
the region as a lookout for both Indians and whites. Army officers considered build
ing Fort Larned on its summit, but because of the hazards of obtaining water in
case of siege the plans were abandoned. Stone for the buildings at Fort Larned
was quarried from this hill and workmen were under military guard to protect them
from Indian attacks. Three white men and six Indians, killed in skirmishes at the
hill, are said to have been buried on the western slope.
Left from the base of Jenkins Hill on the bank of Pawnee Creek is a red granite
boulder marking the site of the old "dry route" crossing of the Santa Fe Trail, also
known as Boyd s Crossing for a saloon established here by A. H. Boyd in 1867.
At 259.1 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left 0.5 m. on this road to the SITE OF FORT LARNED (visitors welcome), now
part of the 2,5oo-acre Fort Larned Ranch, owned by E. E. Frizell and devoted to
stock-raising and the cultivation of alfalfa and sugar beets. The Camp on Pawnee
Fork, as Fort Larned was first known, was established in 1859 to protect travelers
on the Santa Fe Trail from Indian attacks. There were two routes from this point
to Fort Dodge; one closely followed the Arkansas River and touched Big Coon
Creek near Garfield; the other route, shorter but less safe, proceeded 10 or 12 miles
up the south bank of Pawnee River and then cut across dry upland to rejoin the
other route just east of Fort Dodge.
The name of the post was changed to Camp Alert in 1860, and later in the same
year was renamed Fort Larned in honor of the paymaster general of the Army. The
first structures, built by the soldiers, were of adobe with sod roofs; these were re
placed between 1864 and 1868 by the present stone buildings. The sandstone was
quarried at Lookout Mountain, now Jenkins Hill, and the lumber was brought
from Michigan by shipping it down the Missouri River and then hauling it over
land by ox teams. Although soldiers guarded the quarrymen and teamsters during
building operations, the Indians killed several workmen, burned a bridge over the
Pawnee, and drove away much stock.
The buildings face a parade ground 400 feet square. In the center is a small
386 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
mound built as a base for the flagpole. The COMMISSARY QUARTERS have walls two
feet thick; wedge-shaped holes along the south side afford wide views of the
plains. The OFFICERS QUARTERS, three buildings with large front porches, were the
most impressive; the northernmost was in the exact center of the n,ooo-acre mili
tary reservation. In one of the old STABLES is a BLACKSMITH FORGE, formerly used
at the fort, now part of the ranch equipment. A barn 50 feet wide and 372 feet
long is one of the largest in Kansas and was built from the former barracks. A
stone marker at the southwest corner of the quadrangle commemorates the estab
lishment of the fort and gives its history. On the northwest corner is an old
CANNON, mounted on a limestone base and inscribed, "No. 16, B. H., U. S. 1812."
Fort Larned was the supply base and agency for the Arapahoe and Cheyenne from
1860 to 1868. When Indian stores ran low, the warriors would besiege the post,
and at such times the situation occasionally became so tense that United States
troops were summoned to prevent serious trouble. In 1861 a sixteen-year-old sen
tinel, annoyed by the importunities of some 20,000 Indians camped just outside the
fort, shot and killed the son of a chief. Colonel Leavenworth called in the chiefs
for a parley, but no explanation would satisfy the angry Indians; they demanded
that the young man be delivered to them for punishment. Although the post was
inadequately garrisoned, and there was no time to summon re-enforcements, the
officers threatened to exterminate the tribes by cannon fire if they harmed the boy.
"Huh!" the chiefs retorted, "cannon no good." The soldiers quickly wheeled the
cannon about, trained it on a horse, and blew the animal to bits. The Indians im
mediately departed.
In spite of Indian scares there were many social activities at the fort. Full-dress
dinner parties were given for officers on inspection trips. Numerous quiltings,
taffy pullings, and cock fights were held, and at the occasional dances everyone
joined in the quadrille, polka, or schottische to the accompaniment of guitar and
cornet.
By 1878 the troops stationed at Fort Larned had pacified the Wichita and the
Osage, who had rebelled when the railroads invaded their best hunting grounds.
The Indians had been moved to other reservations, and the necessity for the frontier
posts was considerably decreased. All the troops at Fort Larned were moved to
Fort Dodge, and in 1882 Congress approved a bill to authorize the sale of the
reservation. The section of the reservation on which the buildings stand was auc
tioned to the Pawnee Valley Breeders Association in 1884, and the remainder was
made subject to preemption in tracts of 160 acres.
BURDETT, 278.1 m. (2,113 alt., 320 pop.), a shipping and trading
center surrounded by broad wheat fields and cattle pastures, was the boy
hood home of Clyde Tombaugh (1906- ), the astronomer who dis
covered the ninth planet, Pluto, in February 1930, while working at the
Lowell Observatory in Arizona. He was honored by the Royal Astronom
ical Society of London with a bronze medal and the Jackson-Gwilt gift.
Tombaugh first began studying the stars with a homemade telescope
when he was a boy on his father s farm here.
JETMORE, 305.3 m. (2,261 alt., 914 pop.), seat of Hodgeman
County, was founded in 1879 as Buckner, but changed its name to honor
the railroad lawyer who helped it become the county seat. In the court
house is a collection of Indian and Pioneer relics, the property of the
Hodgeman County Historical Society.
Right from Jetmore on US 283 to NESS CITY, 26 m. (2,258 alt., 1,509 pop.),
the seat of Ness County, surrounded by great wheat fields. It was founded in 1878
by James and Ross Calhoun, brothers from Iowa, who took a homestead near
the present townsite. In recent years oil, developed near the town, has caused a mild
boom.
George Washington Carver (1864- ), noted Negro scientist and educator,
TOUR 4 387
lived on a homestead 15 miles west of Ness City from 1888 until 1891, when he sold
his i6o-acre farm and left the State. Carver engaged in geological research in the
vicinity and predicted that oil would be found under the county s rock strata. He
frequently visited Ness City and is well remembered by its older residents, many of
whom helped to pay for the bronze bust of Professor Carver recently unveiled at
Tuskegce, Ala.
At 308.3 m. is the junction with an improved road.
Left on this road is i53-acre HODGEMAN COUNTY STATE PARK, 1 m. with
a large lake (fishing, boating).
At 325 m. the route enters the MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE; watches of
west-bound travelers should be set back one hour.
KALVESTA, 328.5 m. (2,950 alt., 49 pop.), settled in 1874, was a
thriving settlement during the early decades of its existence, but is now
important only as a rural trading center.
Right from Kalvesta on a dirt road to FINNEY COUNTY STATE PARK, 9 m.,
(boating, fishing, cabins, camp accommodations). The dam across the 32o-acre lake
in this park is one of the largest in Kansas.
At 336.2 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road to the SITE OF RAVANNA, B m., contestant for the seat of Gar-
field County (now abolished).
In 1880 John Bull, a Canadian, preempted a claim which included the townsite
and had the proposed name of Bull Town moderated to Cowland. Surrounded by
large cattle ranches, Cowland prospered and was rechristened Ravenna for a town
of that name in Ohio. A mistake was made on the official papers, however, and the
name became Ravanna.
At the organization of Garficld County Ravanna and Eminence became rivals for
the county seat designation. Ravanna won in the election of 1887. But Eminence
charged fraud, and was designated county seat by a decision of the supreme court.
Chagrined, Ravanna claimed that Garfield County had insufficient area to be a
county; the supreme court upheld the claim, dissolved Garfield County, and incor
porated it with Finney County. A few ruined buildings and a portion of the old
courthouse, hastily constructed while Ravanna was the county seat, remain on the
townsite.
In 1882 Rabbi Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati promoted the establishment of a
Jewish agricultural colony one of the few ever attempted in America called
Beersheba, just east of Ravanna. Under the leadership of Rabbi Adelhartz, twenty-
four families arrived in the neighborhood that year, took up claims along Pawnee
Creek, and built a number of dugout shelters and a sod synagogue. Although
helped by Jewish societies in the East, the agricultural venture was not a success.
Most of the colonists managed to live on their claims until the late i88o s when
they mortgaged or sold them, using the money to return East or to establish them
selves in business in western Kansas.
GARDEN CITY, 364.3 m. (2,830 alt., 6,121 pop.), seat of Finney
County, lies on the Arkansas River in an extensive irrigated belt produc
ing sugar beets as the chief crop. The metropolis of western Kansas, Gar
den City is green and shining except when "black blizzards" from the
High Plains sweep across the valley to bury everything under a thick
blanket of dust. A majority of farmers in the region have adopted such
measures as strip listing and planting of cover crops to combat wind
erosion.
Garden City was founded by several brothers named Fulton in 1878, to
the intense indignation and disgust of all cattlemen in the region. In June
388 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
1879, tne fi fst an d last rain of the year fell. "It started the grass," wrote
a local historian, "but the crops perished, and many discouraged people
moved away." The cattlemen enjoyed a temporary triumph, pointing out
that the occasional rains were just sufficient to make the grass grow and
that during succeeding dry spells it was "cured on the stalk" and made
excellent hay. But farmers persisted in plowing up the buffalo grass.
In the late i88o s, there was wild speculation in land throughout the
Southwest, and the town boomed, achieving a population of 6,000. In
spite of the warnings of cattlemen, farmers took up lands all the way to
the Colorado Line, plowed under the sod, and planted corn. In 1886 they
obtained a great crop, "the first and also the last corn crop ever raised in
this region," according to a local historian. A period of drought followed
and many farmers left the area. During the World War a new tide of
settlers flowed in to raise wheat, then in such great demand, on large
mechanized farms. Upon the collapse of farm prices after the war the
production of wheat declined in the region, which turned increasingly to
the growing of sugar beets in irrigated fields along the Arkansas.
In the vicinity of Garden City some 28,000 acres are irrigated with
water pumped from an apparently inexhaustible subterranean supply ly
ing from ii to 40 feet under the surface. Some wells supply water at the
rate of 8,000 gallons a minute. This water, according to geologists of the
State Water Resources Board, fell in the Rocky Mountains 2,000 years
ago an 
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